Following President Obama’s nomination of Judge Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court on Wednesday, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), the chair of the Judiciary Committee, issued a statement reiterating that the Senate will not consider Obama’s nominee and blasting the President’s approach for selecting a new justice.

“Today the President has exercised his constitutional authority. A majority of the Senate has decided to fulfill its constitutional role of advice and consent by withholding support for the nomination during a presidential election year, with millions of votes having been cast in highly charged contests,” Grassley said in a written statement. “As Vice President Biden previously said, it’s a political cauldron to avoid.”

Grassley also criticized Obama’s criteria for selecting a nominee to replace the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

“It’s also important to remember the type of nominee President Obama said he’s seeking. He says his nominee will arrive at ‘just decisions and fair outcomes’ based on the application of ‘life experience’ to the ‘rapidly changing times.’ The so-called empathy standard is not an appropriate basis for selecting a Supreme Court nominee,” Grassley wrote.

“A lifetime appointment that could dramatically impact individual freedoms and change the direction of the court for at least a generation is too important to get bogged down in politics. The American people shouldn’t be denied a voice,” he continued. “Do we want a court that interprets the law, or do we want a court that acts as an unelected super legislature? This year is a tremendous opportunity for our country to have a sincere and honest debate about the role of the Supreme Court in our constitutional system of government.”

Read Grassley’s full statement: