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| Supreme court nomination: Obama to name Merrick Garland – politics live | |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| 2.53pm GMT | |
| 14:53 | |
| Trump to boycott next debate | |
| Donald Trump has made it official: he’s not participating in the scheduled 21 March debate in Salt Lake City, a recent add to the debate calendar. | |
| Trump told Fox News that he would instead be speaking to AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. | |
| “I’m doing a major speech in front of a very important group of people that night,” he said. | |
| 2.50pm GMT | |
| 14:50 | |
| Boehner: 'I'm for Paul Ryan' | |
| While we wait for Obama to pop up in the Rose Garden in about 15 minutes, let’s take a quick scan of politics news lines. | |
| Former House speaker John Boehner has just kicked the conceptual door wide open on a brokered convention in which someone not currently running for president emerges as the Republican nominee. That someone would be Boehner’s successor, Paul Ryan, the Ohioan told the Futures Industry Association in comments first reported by Politico. | |
| If no candidate is elected in the first round of voting at the national convention in July, presumably after having crossed the 1,237 delegate barrier, Boehner said, “I’m for Paul Ryan”: | |
| They all had a chance to win. None of them won. So I’m for none of the above. I’m for Paul Ryan to be our nominee.” | |
| 2.45pm GMT | |
| 14:45 | |
| The number seven is significant because under the current 54-46 makeup of the Senate, it only would take five Republican senators to vote in favor of a nominee to confirm by majority. | |
| Not that Garland will get anywhere close to a confirmation vote, or that senators who previously voted in his favor would again do so in this political climate. | |
| 7 current GOP Senators voted to put Merrick Garland on DC Circuit back in 1997 pic.twitter.com/z4Ov0WSR0y | |
| 2.43pm GMT | |
| 14:43 | |
| Barack Obama is expected to intensify his fight with the Republican majority in the US Senate by nominating an appeals court judge with a record of challenging the federal government to the US supreme court in the wake of the death of the conservative justice Antonin Scalia, write the Guardian’s Ed Pilkington and Dan Roberts: | |
| Merrick Garland, the nominee according to a White House official, now faces an almost insurmountable task of overcoming the dogged resistance of the Republican wing of the Senate that has made clear its intention to boycott any Obama nominee to the nation’s highest court. His nomination puts him at the center of one of the most bitter disputes to erupt between the White House and conservatives in Congress. | |
| At 63, Garland the oldest of the candidates that Obama shortlisted for the top judicial post. His age alone is likely to embolden Republican senators in their contentious opposition to confirming anyone, as it will arm them with ammunition against him based on his long previous record. | |
| The nominee is chief judge of the federal appeals court of Washington DC, a panel that traditionally is seen as a training ground for future supreme court justices. He was nominated for the DC circuit by Bill Clinton in 1997. | |
| It may not presage well that it took the US Senate of that day – which was also Republican-controlled – 18 months to complete the confirmation process. The eventual vote was 76 to 23, with 32 Republicans supporting him. | |
| Read the full piece here: | |
| Related: Obama to nominate DC appeals court judge Merrick Garland to supreme court | |
| 2.33pm GMT | |
| 14:33 | |
| Obama to nominate DC circuit judge Merrick Garland | |
| The Guardian has independently confirmed that Judge Merrick Garland is president Obama’s pick to fill the court vacancy. | |
| 2.32pm GMT | |
| 14:32 | |
| Democratic senator Chuck Schumer, a judiciary committee member, tells Reuters that Garland is indeed the president’s pick. | |
| “It’s an excellent choice, a bipartisan choice. If the Republicans can’t support him, who could they support,” said Schumer. | |
| Tom Goldstein of ScotusBlog has written a useful primer on Garland’s career and jurisprudence. He calls Garland “essentially the model, neutral judge”: | |
| He is acknowledged by all to be brilliant. His opinions avoid unnecessary, sweeping pronouncements. ... | |
| He has broad support on both sides of the aisle, and he has few ideologically controversial rulings. Conservative commentators have expressed support for a potential Garland nomination.... | |
| Judge Garland would also likely have the most immediate influence on the Court. He is well known to the Justices and is likely the most respected by them collectively, particularly the more conservative Justices. The fact that Judge Garland is not only extremely intelligent and respectful but exceptionally careful and quite centrist would mean that his views would have particular salience with, among others, Justices Kennedy and Alito | |
| 2.27pm GMT | |
| 14:27 | |
| The Republican vow not to consider court nominee | |
| Republicans from Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell on down have said that they will not consider an Obama nominee to fill the court vacancy. In ten months a new president will take office. | |
| “I don’t know how many times we need to keep saying this: the judiciary committee has unanimously recommended to me that there be no hearing,” McConnell said last month. “I’ve said repeatedly and I’m now confident that my conference agrees that this decision ought to be made by the next president, whoever is elected.” | |
| McConnell said he saw no reason even to meet with an Obama nominee. Judiciary committee chairman Chuck Grassley, who would be in charge of convening any hearings on the nominee, has said he will not. “We’re not going to drop any nominee into that election-year cauldron,” he said earlier this month. “I’m certainly not going to let it happen to the good people of Iowa.” | |
| Republicans have in the past said nice things in particular, however, about Garland, who led the prosecution of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. Senator Orrin Hatch, the body’s senior Republican, has said that Garland’s “intelligence and his scholarship cannot be questioned”. | |
| 2.15pm GMT | |
| 14:15 | |
| Purported Supreme Court nominee emerges | |
| President Barack Obama will announce Merrick Garland, the chief justice for the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, as his nominee to replace late Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia, the Associated Press and various outlets are reporting. | |
| We’re working to confirm. | |
| Garland was confirmed to the D.C. Circuit in 1997 with backing from a majority in both parties, including seven current Republican senators. | |
| Updated | |
| at 2.34pm GMT | |
| 12.54pm GMT | 12.54pm GMT |
| 12:54 | 12:54 |
| Hello, and welcome to our live-wire coverage of the 2016 race for the White House. President Barack Obama is about to announce, at 11am ET, a supreme court nominee – a move sure to make major waves in the nominating races. | Hello, and welcome to our live-wire coverage of the 2016 race for the White House. President Barack Obama is about to announce, at 11am ET, a supreme court nominee – a move sure to make major waves in the nominating races. |
| But it will be hard to top the crests last night, when Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump exceeded expectations to rack up delegates in five states with mixed demographics in various regions, demonstrating again the national caliber of each candidacy. | But it will be hard to top the crests last night, when Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump exceeded expectations to rack up delegates in five states with mixed demographics in various regions, demonstrating again the national caliber of each candidacy. |
| Related: Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump surge ahead after key primary wins | Related: Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump surge ahead after key primary wins |
| In one state, Missouri, the races were too close to call on both the Democratic and Republican sides. That didn’t stop both the Clinton and Trump campaigns from claiming wins. | In one state, Missouri, the races were too close to call on both the Democratic and Republican sides. That didn’t stop both the Clinton and Trump campaigns from claiming wins. |
| Senator Marco Rubio suspended his campaign after losing his home state of Florida badly to Trump, who swiped all 99 of the delegates at stake. Governor John Kasich enjoyed a home-state victory in Ohio and vowed to fight to the July convention, though he seemed out of the delegates race. Ted Cruz failed to notch a victory but said the race was between him and Trump. | Senator Marco Rubio suspended his campaign after losing his home state of Florida badly to Trump, who swiped all 99 of the delegates at stake. Governor John Kasich enjoyed a home-state victory in Ohio and vowed to fight to the July convention, though he seemed out of the delegates race. Ted Cruz failed to notch a victory but said the race was between him and Trump. |
| Related: Florida, Ohio and other states vote – what we learned | Related: Florida, Ohio and other states vote – what we learned |
| Here’s a snapshot of the delegates races as they stand: | Here’s a snapshot of the delegates races as they stand: |
| Who do you think gets the supreme court nod this morning? As always, thanks for reading and joining in! | Who do you think gets the supreme court nod this morning? As always, thanks for reading and joining in! |
| Updated | Updated |
| at 1.30pm GMT | at 1.30pm GMT |