WHO-TV in Des Moines, IA reported on comments that Senator Charles Grassley made to a pro-life group about the vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court created by Justice Antonin Scalia’s death in February, and President Obama’s nominee to fill that vacancy, Judge Merrick Garland. Among other things, Grassley said “I believe it is vitally important that we don’t have another liberal Supreme Court Justice whose world view is that the Constitution is a living, breathing document.” More audio can be found here.

Senator Grassley, the fact is we don’t know the full contours of Judge Garland’s view of the Constitution, because you’ve practically quit your job as Chair of the Judiciary Committee and run away from holding hearings. Public hearings are the way that Senators discover what a Supreme Court nominee is about, not by simply having oatmeal with them one morning behind closed doors. Merrick Garland deserves more than these unfair personal attacks on his intellectual honesty and integrity. He deserves a chance to face the Judiciary Committee in public hearings where he can show the nation whether he is up to the job of Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. 

Maybe the reason Senator Grassley has run away from hearings is that he’s afraid Judge Garland is as qualified as people from Miguel Estrada to Ken Starr indicate he is.