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| Merrick Garland to be Obama's Supreme Court nominee | Merrick Garland to be Obama's Supreme Court nominee |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| President Barack Obama has announced he is nominating veteran appeals court judge Merrick Garland to be the next US Supreme Court Justice. | |
| 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 Republican majority in the Senate has said it will block a vote on any Supreme Court nominee from Mr Obama. |
| Republicans have called on Mr Obama to leave the nomination to his successor, who will be elected in November. | |
| The death of Scalia, a staunch conservative, left the nine-member Supreme Court evenly divided between conservatives and liberals. | The death of Scalia, a staunch conservative, left the nine-member Supreme Court evenly divided between conservatives and liberals. |
| Profile: Who is Merrick Garland? | Profile: Who is Merrick Garland? |
| What next for the US Supreme Court? | |
| Meet the Supremes: Who are the US top court's judges? | |
| It also set off a battle in a presidential election year over Scalia's successor. | |
| Over to the Republicans - Anthony Zurcher, BBC News, Washington DC | |
| There were a lot of possible strategies being suggested as President Obama considered who would be his Supreme Court nominee. Would he opt for a young, outspoken liberal to rally his party's base and enact a generational ideological change on the court? Would he chose an underrepresented ethnicity or a woman that would force Republicans to risk angering some key voting bloc if they failed to confirm? | |
| In the end Mr Obama chose accommodation by picking an older centrist in appellate court judge Merrick Garland. | |
| It could be that Mr Obama still thinks there's a chance of Senate confirmation for a respected moderate. Maybe he thinks voters will be angered if the Senate rejects even the most uncontroversial choice. | |
| Or perhaps Mr Garland was the best, most qualified candidate who would agree to go along with what will likely be a bruising, probably futile nomination process - a sacrificial lamb offered up in acknowledgment of a dire political reality. | |
| One way or the other it's the Republicans' move now. They can accept Mr Garland or gamble that there won't be a new Democratic president next year who is itching for a fight. | |
| Announcing the nomination in the White House Rose Garden, President Obama said Merrick Garland enjoyed respect from Democrats and Republicans alike. | |
| He praised Mr Garland's decency, integrity and even-handedness during his long career in public service, and described him as an exemplary judge. | |
| He also said Mr Garland was prepared to serve on the court immediately. | |
| Merrick Garland was appointed by Democratic President Bill Clinton in 1997, winning confirmation in a 76-23 Senate 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." | One White House official quoted by Reuters news agency said: "No-one is better suited to immediately serve on the Supreme Court." |