Image by Getty Images

NEW YORK (JTA) — Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer urged President Donald Trump to nominate Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court, according to a report in The Washington Post.

Schumer, a Jewish Democrat from New York, made the request in a phone call earlier this week, The Post reported.

Garland, who also is Jewish, was President Barack Obama’s nominee in 2016 following the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. Senate Republicans, however, would not consider the nomination in March, saying it had to wait until after the presidential election in November.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

Trump chose Neal Gorsuch to fill Scalia’s position, and Gorsuch was confirmed. With Justice Anthony Kennedy announcing last month that he is retiring, Trump gets to pick another justice to serve on the court.

Schumer knows getting Trump to even consider putting Garland on the court is highly unlikely. The conversation “seemed more like a check the box call than meaningful conversation” because Trump already has a shortlist of conservative nominees, a source told The Hill.

Trump said he is announcing his nomination on Monday. Many Jewish groups, such as the National Council of Jewish Women, along with Democrats are concerned that his pick will shift the court deeply to the right and potentially undo recent progressive victories on abortion rights and same sex marriage.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

2X match on all Passover gifts!

$90 → $180 $180 → $360

$360 → $720

Other amount