810 Obama nominates another Jew to Supreme Court - making 5 out of 9, if Sotomayor is counted

Obama nominates another Jew to Supreme Court - making 5 out of 9, if
Sotomayor is counted

Newsletter published on 23 March 2016

From: "kriegsherr@juno.com" <kriegsherr@juno.com>
Date: Tue, 22 Mar 2016 11:08:39 GMT
Subject: Re: Fw: Trump rise shows Israeli grip on American policymaking
is weakening

http://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/Obama-nominates-Jewish-judge-Merrick-Garland-to-Supreme-Court-448151

Supreme Court Nominee Garland is Jewish. Here's How Jews Are Reacting.

By Gabe Friedman

JTA March 16, 2016 1:08pm

http://www.jta.org/2016/03/16/default/merrick-garland-is-jewish-heres-how-jews-are-reacting

Jews make up just over 2 percent of the American population. They could
soon take up almost half the Supreme Court bench.

If Merrick Garland — announced Wednesday as President Barack Obama’s
choice to fill the late Justice Antonin Scalia’s seat — is confirmed, a
record four of the nine Supreme Court justices would be Jewish. Garland
would join Jews Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan on
the court.

Jewish reaction to the news was rapid, and varied.

The Reform movement immediately issued a statement that didn’t take a
side on whether Garland should be confirmed by the Senate or comment on
his Jewishness, but urged Republican lawmakers to fairly consider his
credentials. Garland, 63, is currently the chief judge of the U.S. Court
of Appeals for the District of Columbia.

Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Senate majority leader, has said
Republican senators will not consider any Obama nominee to the Supreme
Court. He called Garland later in the day and told him the Senate would
not take action on his nomination.

"Now that a nominee has been named, we call on Senate Majority Leader
McConnell and Judiciary Chairman Grassley to step back from the
misguided position they have articulated in recent weeks and instead
allow senators to fulfill their constitutionally-mandated role of
providing advice and consent," Rabbi Jonah Pesner said in the statement
by the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism. "The American people
deserve a fully functioning judiciary, starting with a full Supreme
Court bench."

Later in the day, National Council of Jewish Women sent out a similar
statement asking the Senate "fulfill their obligation to hold hearings
on Judge Merrick Garland’s nomination in a timely manner."

Meanwhile, on Twitter, Jews appreciated the historically high ratio
Garland’s confirmation would create.

@mawilner Just rename it the SBEDUS: supreme Beth Din Of the US.
Although a Beth Din only needs three jewish judges

— Asherley (@schmucklevision) March 16, 2016

Garland would be 4th Jew on Supreme Court, would join 5 Catholics. Only
in America — Chemi Shalev (@ChemiShalev) March 16, 2016

Others felt three out of nine is enough.

Merrick Garland will make it 4 Jewish justices out of 9. More diversity
might be nice.

— MJ Rosenberg (@MJayRosenberg) March 16, 2016

And there were the inevitable Bernie Sanders comparisons.

Merrick Garland is my new favorite older Jewish man. Sorry Bernie

— Peter Grosz (@petergrosz) March 16, 2016

Between Merrick Garland & Bernie Sanders, banner year for Jews with very
non-Jewish names who are only in the news to make a political point

— Yair Rosenberg (@Yair_Rosenberg) March 16, 2016

But the overwhelming initial focus was on Garland’s name, which isn’t
obviously Jewish.

Still don’t understand how a dude named Merrick Garland is Jewish
https://t.co/SOg90K80RN

— Max J. Rosenthal (@maxjrosenthal) March 16, 2016

Merrick Garland is the least Jewish name for a Jew since… well, my own
name. https://t.co/FWwigAQCO3 — Jeff Woodhead (@jeffwoodhead) March 16, 2016

@SethAMandel what the — Merrick Garland is Jewish? What the hell kind of
clubbable name is that for a Jew?

— John Podhoretz (@jpodhoretz) March 16, 2016

Despite Jewish Twitter’s onomastic skepticism, Garland is a confirmed
member of the tribe.

In a short, emotional speech after Obama announced his nomination in the
White House Rose Garden, Garland referenced his Jewish background,
saying his grandparents fled to the U.S. from anti-Semitism in Russia.

Garland’s father, Cyril Garland, was born in Omaha but hailed from a
Latvian Jewish immigrant family. He ran an advertising business out of
the family home and died in 2000. Garland’s mother, Shirley Garland, who
is still living, at one point served as director of volunteer services
at the Council for Jewish Elderly in Chicago.

"My family deserves much of the credit for the path that led me here. My
grandparents left the Pale of Settlement at the border of western Russia
and Eastern Europe in the early 1900s, fleeing anti-Semitism and hoping
to make a better life for their children in America," he said, choking up.

Garland’s wife Lynn Rosenman, whose father was a special counsel to
Presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman, is Jewish too.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that
Merrick Garland’s father was Protestant; he was Jewish.