Trying to Push Garland Through Could Kill the Filibuster

The following member post is by Rick Hasen, proprietor of the must-read Election Law Blog and a law professor at the University of California, Irvine School of Law.

David Waldman has raised hopes for a West Wing/House of Cards-style parliamentary maneuver to get the Senate to approve Merrick Garland for the United States Supreme Court before President-elect Trump will have a chance to fill the seat left open in February by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. I’m no expert on the Senate’s parliamentary rules, but I know enough to know that Waldman relies upon some controversial assumptions to say that Senate Democrats could act in the narrow window when the Senate comes together just before new Senators are sworn in. At that magic moment, if Obama has renominated Judge Garland for Scalia’s seat (the current nomination dies with the end of the current session), the Democrats could then confirm him and deprive Republicans of the chance to fill the seat.