Merrick Garland Supreme Court nomination (Beau Lives)

Following the February 2016 death of Associate Justice of the Supreme Court Antonin Scalia, President Barack Obama nominated Merrick Garland to fill Scalia's seat on the Supreme Court on March 16, 2016. At the time of his nomination, Garland was the Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Scalia's death led to an unusual situation in which a Democratic president had the opportunity to appoint a Supreme Court nominee while the Republicans controlled the United States Senate; before Scalia's death, such a situation last occurred when a Senate Republican majority confirmed Grover Cleveland's nomination of Rufus Wheeler Peckham in 1895. Conversely, in February 1988, during an election year, the Democratic-controlled Senate confirmed Anthony Kennedy, who was the Republican President Ronald Reagan's nominee for the Supreme Court, though Kennedy had been nominated in November 1987.

Political commentators widely recognized Scalia as one of the more conservative members of the Court, and noted that a more liberal replacement could shift the Court's ideological balance for many years into the future. The confirmation of Garland would have given Democratic appointees a majority on the Supreme Court for the first time since the 1970 confirmation of Harry Blackmun. After the death of Scalia, Republican Senate leaders announced that they planned to hold no vote on any potential nomination during the president's last year in office. Senate Democrats responded that there was sufficient time to vote on a nominee before the election. Garland's nomination expired on January 3, 2017, with the end of the 114th Congress. However, on January 31st, President Joe Biden renominated Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court, now with a Democratic Senate.

The nomination of Merrick Garland was historic, given the length of the vacancy on the court. It also forced the Democrats to envoke the nuclear rule on the nomination, requiring only 51 votes to achieve cloture and enter voting procedure. On March 15th, 2017, A cloture vote passed 51 to 49 (party line vote) and later that same day, Garland was confirmed 55 to 45. Garland was sworn in the next day.