Norton Statement on President Obama’s Nomination of Judge Merrick Garland for Supreme Court Justice

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), who, as with past U.S. Supreme Court nominees, will be looking into the background of Merrick Garland, Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on behalf of the Congressional Black Caucus, said today that she, of course, remembers that Judge Garland wrote the controversial decision for the 2000 case Alexander v. Daley, in which D.C. residents sought voting rights in the House and Senate. The District lost the case at the U.S. Court of Appeals in a 2-1 decision, and the Supreme Court refused to hear the case. Norton and other officials and residents were deeply disappointed with the decision, even though they realized that the case was one of first impression. Norton has not yet had the opportunity to look into Judge Garland’s 19-year record on the federal court and before, but she said that especially considering that the District has no senators, she believes that the Senate must fulfill its constitutional obligation to give Judge Garland a fair hearing so that he may be questioned about the D.C. case and the rest of his record.