Professor Lin, Former Clerk for Judge Garland, Comments for Media on Supreme Court Nomination
Professor Albert Lin commented for numerous media outlets on President Obama's nomination of Judge Merrick Garland of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to the Supreme Court vacancy created by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. Comments and analysis from Professor Lin, who clerked for Judge Garland during 1997-1998, were part of reports on the nomination that appeared in The Recorder, Think Progress, International Business Times, Capitol Public Radio's news talk program Insight, news radio station KFBK, and Sacramento television stations KCRA-3 and ABC-10. Professor Carlton Larson also provided commentary for the KFBK report.
In an essay published in The Recorder, Professor Lin writes glowingly of Judge Garland's qualifications, praising his wisdom and intellect, his meticulousness, his judicial restraint, and his ethical standards. "Those desiring an ideologue on the Supreme Court may be disappointed by Judge Garland's nomination," writes Lin. "He is no ideologue. But for those of us who believe that our justices should be wise, meticulous, and of the highest character, President Obama could not have made a better choice."
In his interview on Insight, Professor Lin talked about working with Judge Garland and his judicial process. "You got a sense that he really was working through the issues, that he really wanted to figure out what the answer is," said Lin. "He didn't have some sort of preconceived notion of ‘this is how this case should come out,' but he really took the parties' arguments seriously and wanted to get the right answer."
Lin also shared some personal impressions of Judge Garland with the Insight audience, describing him as "a very impressive and serious person, and someone you feel like you enter the presence of with a certain amount of fear and trepidation, not because he's a scary person--he's not at all like that--but he comes across immediately as someone who's very sharp, who you would not want to disappoint, who sets very high standards not only for those working around him but for himself as well."
In an article assessing the nomination from an environmentalist perspective, Professor Lin commented that Judge Garland was thorough and open-minded in dealing with regulatory agencies such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. "I don't think he expressed a specific view towards the EPA, per se, but he recognized that government agencies have a role," said Lin. "They should have some discretion as to how they function, but he also wasn't going to give them a free pass."
Albert Lin is a professor at the UC Davis School of Law with special interests in environmental law, natural resources law, and evidence.