Obama's Three "Finalists" For Supreme Court Nominee ?

In spite of several polls that show most Americans want a new Supreme Court nominee this year, the Senate Republicans are still saying they will not even consider any nominee sent them by President Obama. They want the next president to make the appointment to fill the vacancy left by the death of Antonin Scalia -- in the vain hope that the next president will be a Republican.

But President Obama is not playing their silly (and unconstitutional) game. He has said he will submit a nominee to the Senate, and expects them to do their job (and consider that nominee).

Now it looks like President Obama has narrowed his choices down to three candidates, according to "people with knowledge of the vetting process" (those infamous anonymous sources). Here is how this is being reported by The Washington Post: NOTE --

President Obama is finalizing his decision on a Supreme Court nominee to replace the late Antonin Scalia and appears to have narrowed his choice to three candidates, according to people with knowledge of the vetting process.

The three under consideration are Merrick Garland, chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit; Sri Srinivasan, a judge on the same court; and Paul Watford, a judge on the California-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.

Obama said this week that he wanted to make a decision quickly, and his announcement could come as early as next week, the sources said.

The three finalists bring a range of judicial and legal experience to the selection process.

Srinivasan, 49, was born in India and emigrated as a young child with his family to Kansas. A Stanford Law graduate, he would be the high court’s first Asian American and first Hindu.

Srinivasan was nominated in May 2013 to be a judge on the Washington-based appeals court. The Senate confirmed him, 97 to 0.

Garland, 63, was considered by President Obama for a previous Supreme Court vacancy. Garland grew up in Chicago and graduated from Harvard Law School.

Garland served several stints in the Justice Department and supervised such major cases as the prosecutions of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh and his accomplice, Terry Nichols, and Unabomber Ted Kaczynski. Garland was appointed to the federal circuit court in April 1997 and became chief judge in February 2013.

Watford, 48, grew up in Orange County, Calif., and graduated from the UCLA School of Law.

He worked for four years as an assistant U.S. attorney in Los Angeles before joining the law firm of Munger, Tolles & Olson, where he focused on appellate litigation in state and federal courts. He was appointed by Obama to the federal appeals court in May 2012 after a Senate confirmation vote of 61 to 34.

(NOTE -- The photo of President Obama above is from patheos.com.)