memeorandum: A Supreme Court With Merrick Garland Would Be the Most Liberal in Decades (New York Times)

9:55 AM ET, March 17, 2016

Top Items:

Donald Trump Got More Votes In Ohio Than Hillary Clinton — Democrats still have a turnout problem. — Tuesday was a very good day for Hillary Clinton. She swept primary challenger Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in five states, effectively ending his chances of securing the Democratic presidential nomination.

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit and Slantpoint

David Montgomery / Twin Cities:

Candid Marco Rubio blasts Trump and media, calls Cruz ‘only conservative left in the race’ — Former presidential candidate Marco Rubio told a group of Minnesota supporters Wednesday he is hoping one of the remaining candidates for president will stop Donald Trump from winning the Republican nomination.

Discussion: RedState

Gabriel Debenedetti / Politico:

Democrats sound alarm against Trump — PHOENIX — Leading liberals and progressive groups are turning their gaze away from the Democratic primary and toward efforts to unite the left against Donald Trump, framing him as a dangerous and unprecedented candidate who poses an existential threat to the progressive movement and the nation.

Associated Press:

Analysis: Obama Dares GOP to Let Clinton, Trump Pick Justice — By nominating an uncontroversial 63-year-old judge, President Barack Obama handed Republicans an unwelcome election-year proposition: Give in or risk letting Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump pick a Supreme Court justice the GOP might like even less.

Discussion: Politico, abc13.com and ABC News

New York Times:

With Marco Rubio Out, Ted Cruz Confronts a New Foe in John Kasich — HOUSTON — After months squaring off against Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, presuming him to be the chief obstacle to a one-on-one showdown with Donald J. Trump, Senator Ted Cruz on Wednesday emerged from the latest Republican primaries …

Discussion: Political Wire, Politico, Washington Post, CNN and New York Magazine

Matt Bai / Yahoo Politics:
How Kasich became National Republican Grownup

Discussion: Philadelphia Magazine, CBS News and Bloomberg Politics

Tré Goins-Phillips / TheBlaze.com:
‘You Son of a B***h’: Glenn Beck Slams ‘Delusional’ Kasich for Staying in the Race

Discussion: Bloomberg Business, The Gateway Pundit, Western Journalism, Right Wing Watch, The Daily Caller, The Bob and Chez Show and Real Clear Politics

Gavin Jackson / Post and Courier:
Gov. Nikki Haley siding with Ted Cruz in GOP race

Discussion: NBC News, Hot Air, RedState and Western Journalism

New York Times:
Rubio's Exit Leaves Trump With an Open Path to 1,237 Delegates

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, Political Wire, The Last Tradition, CNN and The San Diego Union …

A.B. Stoddard / The Hill:

GOP reality check: Trump or convention fight — In a crushing rout in the Florida primary Tuesday, Donald Trump — , the candidate who once symbolized the future of the GOP. Trump notched wins in five of six states voting that night, securing a more direct path to the nomination …

Paul Watson / Infowars:

How the GOP Elite Plan To Rob Donald Trump — Cleveland, ladies and gentlemen, won't be for the faint of heart — Shhhh. I've just come from a meeting of the Republican Establishment. You know, those guys who want to replace what the voters want with what they want. That Republican Establishment.

Karen Tumulty / Washington Post:
Wild card for Trump: Who gets to be a convention delegate?

Discussion: Betsy's Page

Trip Gabriel / New York Times:
Republicans Enter a Shadow Campaign to Sew Up Delegates

Discussion: Outside the Beltway

Mark Hensch / The Hill:
Trump taps campaign manager as GOP convention delegate: report

Discussion: Washington Post, New York Times, Mediaite, The Gateway Pundit, Talking Points Memo and NY State of Politics

Harper Neidig / The Hill: GOP official: The party chooses the nominee, not the voters

Maggie Haberman / New York Times:
Donald Trump Warns of ‘Riots’ if Party Blocks Him at Convention

Discussion: AOL

Brian Beutler / New Republic:

Why Would Obama Nominate an Old White Guy to the Supreme Court? — There are a few reasons. Political calculation isn't one of them. — President Barack Obama's decision to nominate Merrick Garland, a 63-year-old white moderate and perennial short-lister, to the Supreme Court …

New York Times:

A Supreme Court With Merrick Garland Would Be the Most Liberal in Decades — Even though Merrick B. Garland is considered a centrist jurist, his appointment to the seat left by Justice Antonin Scalia would result in a historic change in the court. — There are two ways to think about the change.

Discussion: Hot Air, Balloon Juice, Politico, Washington Free Beacon and The Daily Signal

Harper Neidig / The Hill:
No hearing for Obama's Supreme Court nominee, McConnell says

Discussion: Washington Post, Politico, CNN, Yahoo Politics, Breitbart, Los Angeles Times, Slate, Keen News Service, Reuters, The Atlantic, Althouse, hatch.senate.gov, ABC News, New York Times, Vox and Western Journalism

Sarah Almukhtar / New York Times:
Why Obama Nominated Merrick Garland for the Supreme Court

Rose Garden / The White House:
Remarks by the President Announcing Judge Merrick Garland as his Nominee to the Supreme Court

Discussion: The Atlantic, Hot Air and Washington Post

Jordain Carney / The Hill:
GOP senators split with leadership on SCOTUS

Discussion: Breitbart, Wall Street Journal, Hot Air, Washington Post, The Right Scoop and Politico

Chuck Grassley:
Grassley Statement on the President's Nomination of Merrick Garland to the U.S. Supreme Court

Joel Manby / Los Angeles Times:

Op-Ed SeaWorld CEO: We're ending our orca breeding program. Here's why. — A killer whale raises its head out of the water during the first show since an orca killed a trainer at the SeaWorld theme park in Orlando, Fla. on Feb. 27, 2010. — Americans' attitudes about orcas have changed dramatically.

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Mother Jones, CNN, The San Diego Union …, New York Times, NBC News, Mashable, WCMH-TV and The Week

Alex Pappas / The Daily Caller:

Trump Appears To Have Heavily Plagiarized Op-Ed From Carson — An op-ed penned this month by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and published online appears to be blatantly plagiarized from an article written days earlier under former rival Ben Carson's name, The Daily Caller has determined.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, CNN, Yahoo! News, Politico, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, New York Magazine, RedState, Raw Story, Mediaite and Mother Jones

Kristin Salaky / Talking Points Memo:
Carson: You Have To Admit Trump Calling Me A Child Molester ‘Did Work’

Discussion: Scared Monkeys and Daily Kos

news.nike.com:

NIKE HYPERADAPT 1.0 MANIFESTS THE UNIMAGINABLE — “Innovation at Nike is not about dreaming of tomorrow. It's about accelerating toward it,” says Tinker Hatfield. “We're able to anticipate the needs of athletes because we know them better than anybody. Sometimes, we deliver a reality before others have even begun to imagine it.”

Discussion: The Next Web, Refinery29, Slantpoint, Investor's Business Daily, Racked, Engadget, The Verge, VentureBeat, Mashable and Mediaite

Michael R. Bloomberg / BloombergView.com:

Canada's New Hope — The value of the Canadian dollar and the price of oil, one of the nation's top exports, have both tumbled to near record lows. But those details — and the apparent demise of the Keystone XL pipeline — don't begin to tell the story of what lies ahead for the economy of Canada …

Danielle Kreutter / KKTV-TV:

Facebook Post Leads To Police Ticket — An important lesson to be careful about what you post on Facebook and other public sites. One local man ended up getting a ticket after a video he posted on Facebook was viewed by police. — Michael Dalton told 11 News he loves making Facebook videos in his free time.

Discussion: WNEP-TV

Michael Grunwald / Politico:

What We Missed About Rubio — In February 2013, Senator Marco Rubio let me sit in on the politics course he taught part time at Florida International University. He knew I was writing a cover story about him for Time magazine, but he still gave his students a master class in self-promotion in my presence …

Jordan Sargent / Gawker:

PBS News Story on First-Time Trump Voters Prominently Displays Longtime White Power Tattoos — Last night, PBS NewsHour ran a story on the Tilly family of Fayetteville, North Carolina. The Tillys do not have a history of being active in politics, but various members of the family …

Discussion: Raw Story, Talking Points Memo and Joe.My.God.

Amanda Marcotte / Salon:

Stop “helping” Hillary: Sorry, guys, but Clinton doesn't need to smile, whisper, or have John Kasich as her running mate — Instructions to Clinton to smile more or pick Kasich as her VP are just sexism disguised as advice — Tuesday night, those who were lucky enough to be watching …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Washington Post, Daily Kos and addictinginfo.org

Daniel Lippman / Politico:

The Economist rates Trump presidency among its top 10 global risks — A Donald Trump presidency poses a top-10 risk event that could disrupt the world economy, lead to political chaos in the U.S. and heighten security risks for the United States, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit.