Story highlights Merrick Garland will go back to his job as the chief judge on the US Court of Appeals for D.C.

One former solicitor says the Supreme Court nomination process has been forever changed

Washington (CNN) Sometime in January, Merrick Garland is likely to return full-time to a top job in the judiciary. But it will be on the second highest court in the land.

Senate Republicans torpedoed Garland's nomination to the Supreme Court by refusing to hold a hearing on him for months, and Donald Trump's victory killed it outright. That likely means the Supreme Court will continue with a conservative majority for years to come.

But as Garland takes his seat again as the chief judge of the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, he will be remembered by liberals as the nominee whose seat on the Supreme Court was stolen by Republican senators. Those senators changed forever the Supreme Court nomination process.

"I think the right way to think about this is that he is returning to the DC circuit with his stature enhanced," said Donald B. Verrilli Jr., who served as Obama's Solicitor General until last spring and successfully argued blockbuster cases such as same-sex marriage and Obamacare before the high court.

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