While Texas’ Senior U.S. Senator John Cornyn has pledged to block President Barack Obama’s appointment of Merrick Garland to the U.S. Supreme Court, the influential Republican member of the Senate Judiciary Committee said he’ll work with the White House to seat five Texans on U.S. District Court benches.
Before the Senate adjourned for a two-week break, Cornyn joined other Republicans who want to deny Obama the chance to replace conservative icon Antonin Scalia—an appointment that would change the ideological balance of the Supreme Court for generations—by refusing to grant Garland a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. Instead, Cornyn wants to hand that nomination over to a new president next year.
