PORTLAND, Maine - Maine U.S. Sen. Susan Collins said today that she hopes to persuade her fellow Republicans to hold a hearing on President Obama's Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland.
In an appearance on MPBN's Maine Calling program, Collins said she has pressed Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley to meet with Garland, something she says might help change Grassley's mind on holding a hearing.
Collins said the Constitution lays out a process for Supreme Court nominations, and that Republicans' refusal to meet with Garland is "not fair and not right."
"The only way that the Senate can reach reasonable and informed decisions on nominees to the highest court in the land is for us follow the regular process," Collins said. "And that means having these individual one-on-one meetings, and then also the Judiciary Committee, in my view, should hold the kind of in-depth hearings that it has traditionally held."
Collins is one of just a handful of Republican senators who have agreed to meet with the judge that Obama has tapped to fill the seat held by deceased Judge Antonin Scalia. She said her meeting with Garland is scheduled for the first week in April.
Collins added that her decision to meet with the nominee "doesn't mean I've reached a decision" on Judge Garland. She said she'll base her support on the candidate's "intellect, the integrity, the qualifications, experience, fidelity to the Constitution, respect for the rule of law that the nominee has."
