More than 1,300 pages of files on Merrick Garland were made public by the library in response to Freedom of Information Act requests. | AP Photo Clinton Library releases Merrick Garland files

Clinton Library files released Wednesday on Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland provide more evidence of GOP support for Garland two decades ago when he was nominated to a federal appeals court in Washington.

More than 1,300 pages of files on Garland were made public by the William J. Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock, Arkansas, in response to Freedom of Information Act requests seeking records about the Clinton White House's vetting of Garland before his nomination to the D.C. Circuit court of Appeals in 1995.


President Barack Obama nominated Garland to the Supreme Court in March of this year following the unexpected death of Justice Antonin Scalia the prior month.

Republican Senate leaders, with the support of nearly all their GOP colleagues, have refused to hold confirmation hearings or a floor vote on Garland.

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley have argued that the new Supreme Court vacancy occurred so close in time to the presidential election that voters should have a chance to weigh in before senators put a new justice on the high court.

Obama picked Garland in part because he is seen as a judicial moderate and is well-respected in both parties. Some of the records released Wednesday underscore those perceptions by showing GOP backing for Garland in the 1990s.

In one 1996 letter, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) — the then-chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee — pressed Majority Leader Bob Dole to allow a floor vote on Garland despite Grassley's objections that the D.C. Circuit did not require any more judges because of its relatively light workload.

Garland "is well qualified for his position, and several prominent lawyers from both parties have indicated their enthusiastic support for his nomination," Hatch wrote two decades ago. "I have not heard any criticisms of his qualifications or his intelligence, and I see no reason why his nomination should be delayed further."

Hatch also appeared to state a broad view that nominees such as Garland should be acted on by the Senate.

"I believe that we should allow nominees who are fully qualified for their positions, who understand the limited role of judges in our constitutional system of government, and whose views are within the mainstream of judicial ideology to be voted on by the Senate. It is the right thing to do," the senator wrote.

After that letter, more than a year passed before Garland received a floor vote, in March 1997. He was confirmed, 76-23.

The newly-disclosed records also show that Garland also received a ringing — and, according to the source, unusual — endorsement from a prominent former boss: former Justice William Brennan. He wrote to President Bill Clinton urging him to nominate Garland, a former clerk, for the DC Circuit vacancy.

"Ordinarily I would not inject myself into the judicial nomination process, but Merrick is a special case,” Brennan wrote in a letter dated June 28, 1995. "He is a person of exceptional talent and great personal integrity. I have had over 100 law clerks, and Merrick is one of the best."

The records also show contact between Garland and the White House during the early years of the Clinton Administration, when he worked as the top aide to Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick. Garland was extensively involved in discussions about security for the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, the memos show.

Some email messages show Garland also involved in initiating a leak investigation into a 1995 article by Washington Times reporter Bill Gertz on U.S. strategy in arms control talks with the Russians. White House officials reached out to Garland after concluding the journalist had gained access to "a classified, limited access" memo a National Security Council senior director wrote about efforts to persuade the Russians to allow theater missile defense under the Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty.

Of 1,861 pages of Garland-related files the Clinton Library located, 555 pages were withheld in whole or part. Some of the records were withheld on national security and law enforcement grounds, possibly as a result of Garland's work as a prosecutor on the case stemming from the 1995 bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building.

Many of the records were also withheld on privacy grounds, including at least one version of a questionnaire Garland submitted to the Judiciary Committee in connection with his nomination to the federal bench in the 1990s.

At least some of the privacy-related deletions from the files appear to pertain to individuals who were considered for judicial posts but not ultimately nominated by President Bill Clinton.

Sometimes the National Archives, which runs most of the presidential libraries, reconsiders its decisions to withhold information about judicial nominees.

In 2005, after a complaint from Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), the archives released more than 300 pages of Reagan Library records initially withheld about Supreme Court nominee John Roberts. Ultimately, about 65,000 pages about Roberts were made public.

There's no sign GOP leaders are wavering in their opposition to a confirmation hearing or vote on Garland, although some observers believe that could change after the election, particularly if Democrat Hillary Clinton wins the White House. There was little discussion of Garland's predicament at the Democratic National Convention last week, but the White House has been trying to keep the issue alive. Vice President Joe Biden took over Obama's usual weekly recorded address Sunday to issue a plea for Garland's confirmation.

The Garland records were first requested in April 2010 by National Public Radio reporter Jacob Goldstein.