WASHINGTON — Oklahoma's senators will meet with U.S. Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland together on Wednesday, fulfilling a promise they made to show a courtesy to the man who played a key role in the Oklahoma City bombing investigation.

Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Tulsa, agreed Tuesday to join a meeting Garland already had scheduled with Sen. James Lankford, R-Oklahoma City.

Inhofe and Lankford subscribe to the Senate Republican position that the next president should fill the Supreme Court vacancy created by the death in February of Justice Antonin Scalia. That would mean an eight-justice court for at least another year.

However — unlike some of their GOP colleagues — the Oklahoma senators agreed to meet privately with Garland because of his strong connection to their state: He moved to Oklahoma City in 1995 to coordinate the investigation of the Murrah Building bombing and the prosecution of those involved in the plot.