After weeks of refusing to hold hearings for a Supreme Court nominee, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley will finally meet with nominee Judge Merrick Garland.
But Grassley isn’t budging on confirming the candidate.

Grassley, Iowa’s senior senator, spoke on the phone with Garland Monday evening, according to his office. He plans to meet with the nominee for breakfast to discuss the nomination and “why the Senate will not consider a nominee until the next president takes office.”

The time and date of the breakfast has yet to be determined.

Senate Republicans, led by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, vowed to not hold hearings for a Supreme Court nominee until after a new president was elected. The announcement came hours after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia in February.

Grassley previously told *The Daily Iowan* that several Senate Democrats had taken the same position as him, including Sens. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y, and most notably then-Sen. Joe Biden.

“There’s a very generic answer I have to give you,” he said. “This is not about a person. This is about the principle of letting the people have a voice, see. You got to do what’s right.”

Garland, who is the chief judge of the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, has met with several senators over the past couple of weeks, mostly Democrats.

Last week, however, Garland met with Illinois Sen. Mark Kirk, who is up for re-election this year. Kirk is one of two Republican senators who is in favor of holding hearings, along with Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, according to the Washington Post.

Garland, 63, served 19 years in the D.C. circuit. He was born and raised in Illinois amd attended Harvard Law School. He has received support from both Republicans and Democrats in the past.
— by Rebecca Morin