Anyone wondering how Merrick Garland, President Obama’s pick for the Supreme Court, will vote on social issues was given a big hint yesterday when Planned President CEO Cecile Richards gave the nominee a rave review.

The Blaze is reporting on a statement made by Richards shortly after the announcement.

“Judge Garland is an intelligent, highly accomplished judge who has secured bipartisan support in his previous appointments,” Richards said. “Now that the President has upheld his constitutional duty, it is time for the Senate to uphold theirs. The American people deserve a full court and a justice appointed by the President they elected for four years — not three. It is time for the Senate to do their job and give Judge Garland a fair hearing and up or down vote.”

Richards just happened to be present at the White House on the day of the announcement - even though the president's schedule mentioned only a "reception for Women’s History Month" -  and was spotted strolling into the West Wing by two journalists.

Garland’s position on life issues such as abortion, physician-assisted suicide and the death penalty are unknown because, as USA Today reported, “during 19 years at the D.C. Circuit . . . the court’s largely administrative docket has left him[Garland] without known positions on issues such as abortion or the death penalty.”

However, the fact that he has the approval of Planned Parenthood would indicate that the president may have made an ideological pick after all in spite of most pundits’ view that Garland is a moderate.

Pro-life groups, including the Susan B. Anthony List, are urging the Senate not to approve Obama’s nominee.

“We do not know this nominee but we do know Barack Obama,” said President Marjorie Dannenfelser of the pro-life Susan B. Anthony group. “Anyone he nominates will join the voting bloc on the Court that consistently upholds abortion on-demand. The President should not be permitted one last opportunity to stack the Court with pro-abortion Justices.”

Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, agrees and believes it’s no accident that Garland comes without a solid paper trail of rulings on the hot button issues of the day.

“If President Obama wants to keep up this façade of centrism, he needs someone free of social baggage," Perkins writes on his blog. "But, make no mistake. Garland was carefully vetted. This president is too worried about his activist legacy to put it in the hands of a man who values the very Constitution it defies.”

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