AGs demand McConnell, Grassley hold firm on SCOTUS pick

Twenty-one Republican state attorneys general are urging Senate Republican leaders to "stand strong" and exercise the upper chamber's constitutional right to thoroughly vet President Obama's Supreme Court nominee, according to a letter obtained by the Washington Examiner.

In the letter, the attorneys general tell Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley of Iowa to resist rushing the process and to consider the public's voice in its selection of the next justice.

McConnell and Grassley have publicly said they will not allow Obama or the media to force the process.

"President Obama has turned a blind eye to constitutional limitations on his power, and has demanded that Congress capitulate to his will. It is precisely for this reason that the Senate needs to ensure that the newest member of the court have the same faithful adherence to the text of the Constitution that Justice Scalia exhibited throughout his tenure," they wrote. "Indeed, it is times like these when we are most strongly reminded of why our founders had the foresight to embed in our Constitution checks and balances on the president's powers such as the Senate's power to advise and consent."

The letter was sent a day after President Obama nominated Merrick Garland, the chief judge of the U.S. District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals, as his pick to replace conservative stalwart Antonin Scalia, who died unexpectedly last month.