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udge Merrick Garland, President he’s known as a center-left justice. He
Barack Obama’s nominee to fill
would in all likelihood tilt the court
the U.S. Supreme Court vacancy to the left on many issues and could
left by the sudden death last month of
help overrule the conservative bloc of
Justice Antonin Scalia, is a renowned
Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and
jurist on the U.S. Court of Appeals for
Chief Justice John Roberts.
Washington, D.C., Circuit, a Harvard
Conservatives fear that he would
Law graduate and a Jew.
vote to overturn D.C. vs.
If Garland does make it
Heller — the landmark Second
to the Supreme Court, he
Amendment case in 2008 that
would be the fourth Jewish
affirmed gun ownership as a
justice on the current court
constitutional right — if the
— joining Elana Kagan,
right to bear arms were again
Ruth Bader Ginsberg and
brought in front of the court.
Stephen Breyer — along
Garland supported D.C.’s hand-
Judge Merrick
with five Catholics.
gun ban and voted at the time
Garland
Garland’s family fled
for the Supreme Court to recon-
anti-Semitism in Russia
sider the decision by a three-
at the beginning of the 20th century,
judge panel of the D.C. Circuit of the
and he was raised in Chicago in a
Court of Appeals to invalidate the ban.
Conservative Jewish community.
In the 1990s, as an attorney for the
His mother, born Shirley Horowitz,
Department of Justice, Garland assist-
was director of volunteer services at
ed in the prosecutions of Oklahoma
Chicago’s Council for Jewish Elderly,
City bomber Timothy McVeigh
according to the Forward. And his
(who was ultimately executed) and
father, Cyril Garland, worked in adver- Unabomber Ted Kaczynski. Liberals
tising and died in 2000. Garland lives
have pointed out that Garland appears
with his wife, Lynn, in Bethesda, Md.,
to rarely side with criminal defendants
and they are members of Temple Sinai, appealing their convictions.
a Reform synagogue in Washington,
In 2003, he sided with the Bush
D.C.
administration in ruling that
Garland, 63, is also connected by
Guantanamo Bay detainees cannot
marriage to a well-known Orthodox
seek relief in civilian courts, a decision
Jewish family, the Rosenmans, whose
that was overruled by the Supreme
claims to fame include Samuel
Court in 2008.
Rosenman, a renowned jurist and
Garland’s wife, Lynn, 55, married
Democratic politician in the early 20th him at New York’s Harvard Club on
century, and an earlier Rosenman who Sept. 20, 1987, according to a wedding
opened some of Jerusalem’s earliest
announcement from the New York
matzah and tallit factories.
Times. She is a graduate of Harvard
Garland’s odds of reaching the
and the Massachusetts Institute of
Supreme Court during Obama’s term
Technology, and at the time worked
appear slim. Following Scalia’s death
for a defense contractor in a Virginia
last month at a ranch in Texas, Senate
suburb outside Washington, D.C.
Republicans have vowed they will not
Her grandfather, Samuel Rosenman,
hold hearings on any Obama nominee, was a leading Democratic Party figure
arguing that the fate of the Supreme
in the early 20th century and was one
Court should be left up to voters in
of America’s most prominent Jews at
November.
the time.
Until Scalia’s death, the Supreme
He was a Democratic representative
Court had four conservative justices
in the New York State Assembly in the
and four liberals, with center-right
1920s, served as a justice for the New
Justice Anthony Kennedy often serving York Supreme Court from 1936-1943,
as the deciding vote.
and was a leading adviser and speech-
Although Garland is somewhat of
writer for Presidents Franklin D.
a “compromise nominee” for Obama,
Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman.
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42 March 24 • 2016