title:  Democratic Senator Joins #THERESISTANCE: Says Trump Stole Obama’s SCOTUS Seat (DETAILS)
text: We all remember when Justice Antonin Scalia died last year, leaving a vacancy on the United States Supreme Court. As a result of his death, President Barack Obama did his job and nominated a qualified federal judge to replace Scalia on the Supreme Court, Merrick Garland.Garland was a centrist, and a completely uncontroversial nominee for the land s highest court. However, Mitch McConnell decided that his goal was to obstruct President Obama, and he and the rest of the Republicans in the Senate decided not to meet with Judge Garland, and to give him no hearing and no vote. Now that we have a new president in Donald Trump, a right-wing extremist approved by far-right activist groups like the Heritage Foundation has been nominated in one Neil Gorsuch. To that end, Democrats are taking to the streets as they have been doing since Trump s election to pressure their elected Senators to oppose Trump s pick.One Democratic Senator, Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon) has said that he will defend and keep open the Supreme Court seat that was effectively stolen from President Obama. Merkley says via Twitter:Not only is this a stolen seat, but @realDonaldTrump has nominated a far right extremist. Unacceptable. https://t.co/9bkw4QODXD pic.twitter.com/iVHDdb2Pn9  Senator Jeff Merkley (@SenJeffMerkley) February 1, 2017Part of the statement reads: This strategy of packing the court, if successful, could threaten fundamental rights in America, including workers  right to organize, women s reproductive rights, and the rights of ordinary citizens to have their voices heard in elections rather than being drowned out by the corrupting influenceof dark money from the richest Americans. If President Trump were serious about healing the divisions in America and undoing the damage wrought by Senate Republicans last year, he could have named Merrick Garland to fill this seat. Garland is a centrist jurist who is respected on both sides of the aisle. Instead, he doubled down on division by picking an ideological and extreme nominee to satisfy the far right. Senator Merkley is right. The Court should not be packed with far-right   or, for that matter, far-left- ideologues. It should be filled with thoughtful, intellectual jurists who will not let personal opinions supercede the rule of law. That means nothing to the GOP, though; they just want their anti-worker, anti-poor, anti-gay, anti-immigrant, anti-woman agenda pushed through   damage to the nation s highest court be damned.In short, Merkley is urging his Democratic colleagues in the United States Senate to stand up to Republican obstruction, to make them look as bad as possible, and to save the Court from far-right ideologues who would destroy and roll back rights for all Americans except the rich, straight, white, and male a century.Featured image via Alex Wong/Getty Images