The letter, made publicly available last week and signed by 44 general counsel, calls on the Senate Judiciary Committee to consider the Obama administration’s nomination of Garland as a successor to the late Justice Antonin Scalia on the bench of the Supreme Court of the United States. Garland was nominated to fill the vacancy following Scalia’s passing in March, but Senate Republicans have so far held out on holding a hearing on the nomination. With the US federal election approaching in November, many within the GOP feel it should be the purview of the country’s new President, rather than incumbent President Obama, to select a new judge for the nation’s highest court.
‘First-class legal mind’
The letter is both an endorsement of Garland as a candidate and a call for a swift end to judicial uncertainty for businesses. Signatories of the letter – which include top lawyers from companies including Spotify, Nike, BlackBerry and Estée Lauder – argue that Mr Garland’s ‘outstanding and beyond dispute’ qualifications make his nomination to SCOTUS worthy of swift consideration: ‘His many years of private practice and government work before becoming a judge, including his tenure as both a federal prosecutor and a senior official in the Department of Justice, are well-documented and demonstrate a first-class legal mind, great respect for the institutions of the law, and an enduring commitment to public service.
Ending uncertainty
The GCs also call on the Senate Judiciary Committee to support US businesses which rely on legal and regulatory stability. ‘The business community has a great interest in avoiding the legal uncertainty that could result if the vacancy remains unfilled for an extended period of time,’ the letter states, adding that the absence of a tie-breaking ninth vote on the SCOTUS bench could delay key decisions in the areas of intellectual property rights, labour and employment laws and securities law, among others. ‘Accordingly, we urge the Committee to schedule hearings as soon as reasonably practicable regarding Chief Judge Garland’s nomination,’ the letter concludes.
The full letter and list of signatories can be found at BigLaw Business.
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