Republican senator calls for hearing on Obama's Supreme Court pick

US Republican Senator Susan Collins has called on Congress to hold hearings on President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, becoming the second GOPer to meet the Democratic administration's pick.

After a meeting with Obama’s nominee, Judge Merrick Garland, the Maine senator said Tuesday that their conversation had further convinced her that the Senate should hold hearings on the president’s nominee despite the GOP leadership’s assertion that the next president should nominate the Supreme Court justice to replace Antonin Scalia.

“I’ve just concluded a more than hour-long meeting with Judge Garland. It was an excellent meeting that allowed us to explore many of the issues that I would raise with any nominee to the Supreme Court as well as some of the criticisms that have been levied against him. The meeting left me more convinced than ever that the process should proceed,” Collins told reporters on Capitol Hill.

She said the next step “should be public hearings before the Judiciary Committee so that the issues that we explored in my office should be publicly aired, and so that senators can have a better opportunity to flesh out all of the issues that we discussed.”

Praising the nominee after the meeting, Collins also urged fellow Republicans to hold a public review instead of rejecting him out of hand.

"My views are not a secret to my colleagues. I would encourage all of my colleagues to sit down with Judge Garland," she told reporters. "I believe that that's how the process should work and works best when we have these one-on-one meetings followed by public hearings." 

This is while nearly all Senate Republicans are opposed to confirmation hearings for Judge Garland, arguing that the next president should appoint a successor for Scalia. 

“It would be ironic if the next president happens to be a Democrat and chooses someone who is far to Judge Garland’s left,” said Collins when asked whether she would vote to confirm the nominee. “But we really don’t know what’s going to happen in this very strange political year, so I think what we should do is follow the normal process with the nominee that has been sent up by the president, and that to me is the best way to proceed.”

Apart from Collins, only Senator Mark Kirk (R-Illinois) has met with Garland and supports holding confirmation hearings for the 63-year-old, who has served as the chief judge of the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia for nearly two decades.

At least 15 other Republicans have voiced willingness to meet him. 

The February death of Justice Scalia, a staunch conservative, left the nine-member Supreme Court evenly divided between conservatives and liberals.

The Senate must confirm Garland's nomination, but the Republican majority has already ruled out considering it. They have said they will refuse to hold confirmation hearings or votes until the next president is sworn in next January.

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