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GOP senator reverses stance: No hearings for Garland

by Jessie Hellmann - 04/02/16 1:02 PM ET

Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) no longer supports holding hearings for President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, according to a report Friday.

Moran faced immense pressure from the right after saying last week that Merrick Garland should get a Senate hearing.

{mosads}“As Senator Moran has said, he is opposed to President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee,” a Moran aide told the National Review.

“He has examined Judge Garland’s record and didn’t need hearing to conclude that the nominee’s judicial philosophy, disregard for Second Amendment Rights and sympathy for federal government bureaucracy make Garland unacceptable to serve on the Supreme Court. Senator Moran remains committed to preventing this president from putting another justice on the highest court in the land,” the aide continued.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) confirmed Moran’s change, saying the Kansas senator had called him about the Supreme Court vacancy.

“I’m confident that he’s committed to ensuring the American people have an opportunity to make their voices heard during this pivotal election, and that the Senate should consider the nominee submitted by the next president,” Grassley said in a statement to the National Review.

Moran said last week that not holding a hearing for Garland would be “not doing my job.”

“I think we have the responsibility to have a hearing, to have the conversation and to make a determination of the merit,” Moran said.

His change comes after a Tea Party group threatened to back a primary challenger against him.

“Grassroots activists in Kansas and across the country are furious that Senator Jerry Moran has decided to join President Obama in denying them a voice in the next Supreme Court Justice with their votes in November,” said Jenny Beth Martin, chairwoman of the Tea Party Patriots Citizen Fund.

She suggested the group would encourage Milton Wolf, who lost a primary challenge to Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts in 2014, to run against Moran in the August GOP primary.

Tags Chuck Grassley Jerry Moran Kansas Pat Roberts Supreme Court