title: White House prods Senate on Garland amid Republican blockade
text: WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House pressed forward on Tuesday with its uphill battle to win Senate confirmation of President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, providing senators Merrick Garland’s voluminous responses to questions about his background. The 141 pages of answers to standard questions posed to U.S. Supreme Court nominees, plus another 2,066 pages of appendices, filled six boxes that were wheeled into the U.S. Capitol building for reporters to see. “Now that we have this, let’s have some confirmation hearings. We have never in my lifetime had a time when there’s been a nominee for Supreme Court justice (that) they haven’t been offered a hearing,” said Senator Patrick Leahy, the 76-year-old top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Senate Republicans have blocked consideration of Garland, the centrist federal appeals court judge nominated by the Democratic president in March, saying Obama’s successor should fill the court’s vacancy left by the February death of Justice Antonin Scalia. White House spokesman Josh Earnest called the questionnaire provided to the Senate “an exhaustive picture of Judge Garland’s distinguished career and impeccable credentials.”  The questionnaire has become a tradition for Supreme Court nominees as part of the confirmation process. The process is anything but traditional this time around because of the Republican blockade, but at least three Judiciary Committee Republicans said they would read through Garland’s material. One of them, Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona, said if Democrat Hillary Clinton wins the presidency on Nov. 8, the Senate should confirm Garland during a post-election legislative session before she takes office in January. While Flake said a “conservative jurist” should replace Scalia, Garland could be a better alternative than a potentially more liberal nominee from Clinton. Billionaire businessman Donald Trump is the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. “Most of us (Senate Republicans) believe Trump would appoint somebody more conservative than Hillary would,” Flake said, adding, “I’d like to be more sure of that.” Some Republicans are not sold on Trump’s conservative credentials. Garland’s material provided insights into what the 63-year-old judge views as his career highlights. Garland cited a 2008 ruling he authored backing a Chinese Uighur detained at the Guantanamo Bay prison, and a 2015 ruling in which his appeals court upheld a long-standing ban on U.S. government contractors making campaign contributions in federal elections. Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid, asked whether the White House should withdraw Garland’s nomination if Clinton wins, allowing her to make her own pick, responded: “I think he’d be a great addition to the court. He’s a consensus nominee. And I am a Garland man.” 