There’s always been an air of desperation around right-wing attempts to smear Judge Merrick Garland’s judicial record. Unable to find actual evidence that Judge Garland is anything but a fair-minded jurist who upholds the rule of law, his critics have resorted to either gross mischaracterizations of his decisions, or attacks manufactured out of thin air—making assumptions about his views based on the bare fact that President Obama nominated him rather than actual cases (and he has 19 years’ worth to choose from).
But things went from desperate to absurd when the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), a front group for the Kochs and other corporate interests, went after Judge Garland over a case in which Judge Garland and Justice Scalia (along with every member of the Supreme Court at the time, including Chief Justice Rehnquist and Justice Thomas) came out precisely the same way.