By - The Washington Times - Updated: 8:07 p.m. on Wednesday, March 16, 2016 President Obama tried to tap a moderate to fill the seat of the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, but he ended up picking a fight with powerful Second Amendment groups that say Judge Merrick Garland has shown antipathy toward gun rights. In one 2000 case, Judge Garland, who sits on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, upheld a Clinton administration effort to store gun-buyers’ records.
Later in the decade, he joined other judges in a failed bid to reconsider the landmark case that would eventually establish the Second Amendment’s protection of a personal right to bear arms.
VOTE NOW: Should GOP senators oppose Merrick Garland's nomination?
“This is probably the most anti-gun Supreme Court nomination in decades,” said Brian Rogers, executive director of America Rising Squared, a conservative group conducting opposition research on Judge Garland.
Judge Garland was appointed to the D.C. circuit in 1997 after surviving a contentious Senate fight that centered more on whether that court needed another judge than on whether he was the right pick.
Now, Judge Garland faces a similar fight. Republican senators say the Supreme Court can operate with eight justices until next year, when voters will have had a chance to choose the president whom they want to make the pick.
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