In a Des Moines Register op-ed, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) defended his opposition to holding hearings on Merrick Garland, President Obama's pick to fill the Supreme Court vacancy left by the death of Antonin Scalia.
Grassley, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and other GOP leaders have adamantly said they will not hold hearings on Garland. In his op-ed, Grassley argued that it's "absurdity" to believe that "the federal judiciary is debilitated without a ninth Supreme Court justice for a brief period of time." The Supreme Court was established with only six justices, he wrote, and "no one would call members of the first Congress that passed the Judiciary Act of 1789, like James Madison, or George Washington, who signed it into law, un-American."
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