Garland and Grassley’s Power Breakfast

Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Sen. Chuck Grassley has vowed not to hold hearings on President Obama’s nominee to fill the U.S. Supreme Court vacancy. But that didn’t stop him from meeting with Merrick Garland, the nominee, for a 70-minute power breakfast this week. Though the meeting was “cordial and pleasant,” according to Grassley’s office, the senator “explained the Senate won’t be moving forward during this hyper-partisan election year.” Garland has met with a number of Republican senators in the weeks since his nomination was announced. Grassley, meanwhile, published an op-ed in an Iowa newspaper suggesting the Supreme Court could work just fine with only eight justices on the bench.