Republicans are standing firm, saying the next president should nominate the person to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court, not President Obama, who is in his final year in office.
President Obama has nominated Merrick Garland, the chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, to fill the vacancy left by the death of Antonin Scalia. Justin Crowe, an associate professor of political science at Williams College in Williamstown, says politically, the nomination makes sense.