FIVE FACTS ABOUT US JUDGE MIERRICK GARLAND

5 facts about Merrick Garland, Supreme Court nominee

Michael Walsh and Jason Sickles

March 16, 2016

The eyes of the Beltway focused on Merrick Garland on Wednesday after President Obama nominated Garland, the chief judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, as late Justice Antonin Scalia’s successor.

“I’ve selected a nominee who is widely recognized not only as one of America’s sharpest legal minds, but someone who brings to his work a spirit of decency, modesty, integrity, evenhandedness and excellence,” Obama said during an announcement in the White House Rose Garden.

For those getting up to speed on Garland’s reputation, past and implications for the makeup of the Supreme Court, here are five facts about him.

Was confirmed by seven sitting GOP senators in 1997

In 1997, Chief Judge Garland was confirmed to the D.C. Circuit, 76-23, with the majority support of both major parties. This included the support of seven current GOP senators: Dan Coats (Indiana), Thad Cochran (Mississippi), Susan Collins (Maine), Orrin Hatch (Utah), James Inhofe (Oklahoma), John McCain (Arizona) and Pat Roberts (Kansas).

For 19 years, Garland has served on that court, which is considered among the most important appellate courts in the United States. He has been chief judge of the D.C. Circuit for more than three years.

Would be the oldest justice to get confirmed in 40 years

Garland was born in Illinois on Nov. 13, 1952. At 63, his confirmation would make him the oldest justice to join the Supreme Court in 44 years. Justice Lewis Powell was 64 when he joined the court in 1972. Powell retired in 1987 and died in 1998 at the age of 90.

Judge Merrick Garland, center, after President Obama announced his nomination to the Supreme Court in the White House Rose Garden, March 16, 2016. (Photo: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)

Would make five of nine sitting justices Harvard Law grads

If he is appointed, Garland would give the court five graduates of Harvard Law School: John G. Roberts, Anthony M. Kennedy, Stephen G. Breyer and Elena Kagan. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg attended Harvard Law but transferred to Columbia Law School, where she graduated. Three justices are Yale Law School alums: Clarence Thomas, Sonia Sotomayor and Samuel A. Alito Jr.

Would make the court 5 Catholics, 4 Jews

When it comes to religion, Garland’s appointment would give the court four Jewish justices: The others are Ginsburg, Breyer and Kagan. The five remaining justices are Catholic: Thomas, Sotomayor, Alito, Kennedy and Roberts.

Would make three former prosecutors on the court

Garland, a former deputy assistant U.S. attorney general during President Clinton’s first term, would be the third sitting justice with prosecutorial experience — joining Sotomayor and Alito. Garland supervised the Oklahoma City bombing and Unabomber cases. When he was a potential nominee in 2010, SCOTUSBlog, a popular law blog written by lawyers and law students, reviewed his then 13 years as a D.C. circuit judge in criminal cases. “Judge Garland rarely votes in favor of criminal defendants’ appeals of their convictions,” the blog reported.

Full video:

Yahoo News Special Report: Obama�s Supreme Court nominee

On Wednesday, March 16th, 2016, at 11:00a.m. On March, 16th, 2016, at 11:00 a.m. Eastern, President Obama is making an announcement regarding his pick to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court. Yahoo New will carry this announcement live and Yahoo News and Finance Anchor Bianna Golodryga will speak with the President of the National Constitution Center, Jeffrey Rosen regarding this historic nominee.

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A video posted on the coast guard's website showed a large Chinese boat listing in the open sea while apparently under pursuit.

Poaching of fish is a perennial problem in the Atlantic and Southern Ocean, and has sometimes seen law enforcement agencies pursue violators for weeks on end at sea, but it is highly unusual for such incidents to end with a vessel being sent to the sea floor.

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SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea's supreme court sentenced American student Otto Warmbier, who was arrested while visiting the country, to 15 years of hard labor on Wednesday for crimes against the state.

Warmbier, a 21-year-old University of Virginia student, was detained in January for trying to steal an item bearing a propaganda slogan from his hotel in Pyongyang, North Korean media said previously.

"The accused confessed to the serious offense against the DPRK he had committed, pursuant to the U.S. government's hostile policy toward it, in a bid to impair the unity of its people after entering it as a tourist," the state-controlled KCNA news agency reported, using the acronym for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.]

Human Rights Watch condemned the sentence handed down to the student from Wyoming, Ohio. Japan's Kyodo news agency published a picture of Warmbier being led from the courtroom by two uniformed guards, with his head bowed, but visibly distressed.

"North Korea's sentencing of Otto Warmbier to 15 years hard labor for a college-style prank is outrageous and shocking, and should not be permitted to stand," Phil Robertson, deputy director of HRW's Asia division, said in an emailed statement.

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Otto Frederick Warmbier (C), a University of Virginia student who was detained in North Korea since  …

Warmbier's defense attorney said the gravity of his crime was such that he would not be able to pay even with his death but proposed to the court a sentence reduced from the prosecution's request of a life sentence, KCNA said.

Last month, Warmbier told a media conference in Pyongyang that his crime was "very severe and pre-planned."

The U.S. State Department did not have an immediate comment and Warmbier's parents could not immediately be reached.

A spokesman for the University of Virginia said the school was aware of the reports about the sentence and remains in touch with Warmbier's family, but declined further comment. Warmbier majors in economics with a minor in global sustainability, according to his social media profiles.

Warmbier was at the end of a five-day New Year's group tour of North Korea when he was delayed at airport immigration before being taken away by officials, according to the tour operator that had arranged the trip.

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U.S. student Otto Warmbier speaks at a news conference in this undated photo released by North Korea …

Warmbier's sentencing comes as North Korea is increasingly isolated, with the U.N. Security Council imposing tough new resolutions earlier this month following the North's January nuclear test and last month's long-range rocket launch.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said this week the North would soon test a nuclear warhead and ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads, in what would be a direct violation of U.N. resolutions backed by its chief ally, China.

North Korea has a long history of detaining foreigners and has used jailed Americans in the past to extract high-profile visits from the United States, with which it has no formal diplomatic relations.

North Korea is also holding a Korean-Canadian Christian pastor it sentenced to hard labor for life in December for subversion. The North is also holding a Korean-American and three South Korean nationals.

It has previously handed down lengthy sentences to foreigners before freeing them.

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U.S. student Otto Warmbier reacts at a news conference in this undated photo released by North Korea …

In 2014, North Korea released three detained Americans.

Ohio Governor John Kasich called on North Korea to immediately release Warmbier.

"His detention was completely unjustified and the sentence North Korea imposed on him is an affront to concepts of justice. Continuing to hold him only further alienates North Korea from the international community," Kasich, who is also a Republican presidential candidate, said in a statement.

Former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, who had previously traveled to North Korea, met the North's ambassador to the United Nations on Tuesday to press for Warmbier's release, the New York Times reported.

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Police superintendent Kashif Zulfiqar told Al Jazeera that more than 30 people were also wounded. 

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Breaking News: Obama Appoint Supreme Court Judge............

US President Barack Obama has nominated Merrick Garland, an appellate court judge and former prosecutor, to the Supreme Court.

In an address from the White House Rose Garden on Wednesday, Obama emphasised Garland's readiness for the job and history of support from both Republicans and Democrats.

"He has earned respect and admiration from both sides of the aisle," Obama said, praising Garland for his "decency, integrity and even-handedness."

"He is uniquely prepared to serve immediately," the president added. 

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According to the report, the amount was expended on such items “during the 2012 Christmas and New Year break.”