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| Merrick Garland to be Obama's Supreme Court nominee | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| President Barack Obama is to nominate veteran appeals court judge Merrick Garland to be the next US Supreme Court Justice, White House officials say. | |
| The Supreme Court vacancy follows the death of Justice Antonin Scalia last month at the age of 79. | The Supreme Court vacancy follows the death of Justice Antonin Scalia last month at the age of 79. |
| Judge Garland, 63, is the chief judge of the Washington appeals court and a former prosecutor. | Judge Garland, 63, is the chief judge of the Washington appeals court and a former prosecutor. |
| The Republican majority in the Senate has said it will block a vote on any Supreme Court nominee from Mr Obama. | |
| The death of Scalia, a staunch conservative, left the nine-member Supreme Court evenly divided between conservatives and liberals. | |
| Profile: Who is Merrick Garland? | |
| It also set off a battle in a presidential election year over his successor. | |
| Merrick Garland was appointed by Democratic President Bill Clinton in 1997, winning confirmation in a 76-23 vote, and served in the Justice Department during the Clinton administration prior to that. | |
| One White House official quoted by Reuters news agency said: "No-one is better suited to immediately serve on the Supreme Court." |