I’ve known Merrick Garland and his wife Lynn for the nearly two decades he served on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. And over the course of many conversations and meals over the years, I’ve grown, like so many others, to admire him as the platonic ideal of a judge’s judge, one who exemplifies the qualities that Obama described in the Rose Garden: “a thoughtful, fair-minded judge who follows the law,” who has “shown a rare ability to...persuade colleagues with wide-ranging judicial philosophies to sign on to his opinions” because of his “fundamental temperament—his insistence that all views deserve a respectful hearing.” In this polarized age, and on this polarized Court, it’s hard to imagine more urgently needed qualities in a Supreme Court justice.

Imagine, for the sake of argument, that Republicans give Garland the open-minded hearing he deserves. What kind of justice would he be? In all the major cases he has decided—from campaign-finance cases to administrative regulations, gun cases, terrorism, and crime—Garland has combined a deference to prosecutors, legislators, and executive officials with a willingness to enforce First Amendment and other rights clearly enumerated in the text of the Constitution. For this reason, unlike the nomination of Robert Bork, who sought radically to transform the Court at a time when it was evenly divided, Garland’s nomination is a bipartisan gift to Republicans in a divided age. And it is also a gift to Democrats: Because of his conciliatory temperament, and because of the respect he has earned from conservative and liberal justices alike, Garland is uniquely well suited to guide the Court toward the center under a new liberal majority without calling its legitimacy into question among American citizens as a whole.

Consider campaign finance cases, where the liberal justices have signaled their eagerness to overturn Citizens United. There is no evidence that Garland would lead this charge, although he might ultimately join it. Interpreting Citizens United broadly rather than narrowly in 2010, he joined the unanimous ruling in SpeechNow.org v. FEC, which led to the creation of the super PAC. (It was brought by David Keating, whom Time described as “the man who invented the super PAC,” and it held that annual limits on contributions to campaign advocacy groups violate the First Amendment.) “Because of the Supreme Court's recent decision in Citizens United v. FEC, the analysis is straightforward,” the D.C. Circuit held. According to Citizens United, “independent expenditures do not corrupt or give the appearance of corruption as a matter of law.” As a result, “the government can have no anti-corruption interest in limiting contributions to independent expenditure-only organizations.” Damon Root of Reason wrote that “the D.C. Circuit had an opportunity to accept the federal government's narrowing analysis of Citizens United and it rejected that narrowing analysis,” concluding that Garland’s vote in SpeechNow may. . . come as something of a disappointment to his would-be progressive supporters.”