Justice is not about abstract legal theory, nor some footnote in a dusty casebook.

I will announce the person whom I believe is eminently qualified to sit on the Supreme Court.

I am fulfilling my constitutional duty.

This is precisely the time when we should play it straight and treat the process of appointing a Supreme Court Justice with the seriousness and care it deserves.

I said I would take this process seriously, and I did.

Presidents do not stop working in the final year of their term.

This visit is a validation of the President's approach to the hemisphere, which has emphasized engagement and respectful partnerships.

His life experience... informs his view that the law is more than an intellectual exercise.

Today I am nominating Chief Judge Merrick Brian Garland to join the Supreme Court.

The role of the court is to apply the law to the facts of the case before it—not to legislate, not to arrogate to itself the executive power, not to hand down advisory opinions on the issues of the day.

I have selected a nominee who is widely recognized not only as one of America's sharpest legal minds, but someone who brings to his work a spirit of decency, modesty, integrity, evenhandedness and excellence.

I'm confident you'll share my conviction that this American is not only eminently qualified to be a Supreme Court Justice, but deserves a fair hearing, and an up-or-down vote.