Republicans are against final year nominations, but they do tend to think that the Senate should hold hearings on Garland anyway
President Obama recently announced that a sitting federal judge, Merrick Garland, was his nominee for the Supreme Court vacancy created by the death of Antonin Scalia. The Republican leadership of the Senate has refused to consider his nomination, saying that the vacancy should only be filled by whoever wins the 2016 presidential election.
YouGov's latest research shows that two-thirds of Republicans agree with the argument that final year presidents should leave any vacancies on the Supreme Court for the next president to fill and only 21% say that final year presidents shouldn't wait and should nominate a replacement immediately. Despite this, however, Republicans tend to disagree (49% to 36%) with the refusal of Senate Republicans to hold hearings on his nomination. Overall Americans tend to say that a nomination should be made immediately (47%) and most (52%) want the Senate to hold hearings on Garland.
While a large majority of Republicans (56%) disapprove of Obama nominating Garland, only half that number (29%) actually think that he would be a bad Supreme Court justice. In fact, 21% of Republicans say that he would be a good Supreme Court justice while 50% just aren't sure.
