The Angle

The Angle: Placeholder Edition

Slate’s daily newsletter on the nomination of Merrick Garland, Super Tuesday 2 results, and where the “air ball” taunt came from. 

Merrick B. Garland, being introduced by U.S. President Barack Obama as the nominee for the Supreme Court, in the Rose Garden, March 16, 2016. 

Mark Wilson/Getty Images

Merrick Garland! Merrick Garland! Obama’s nominee for the Supreme Court is:

  • A really disappointing choice, argues Mark Joseph Stern; a step backward for diversity.
  • Actually kind of a great judge, counters Dahlia Lithwick; he’s “been a thoughtful liberal, even as he is 63, and white, and looks like a grandpa.” Plus, giving him the nod was a smart and pragmatic decision on Obama’s part.
  • Probably never going to be a Supreme Court justice, writes Jim Newell, and he’s savvy to that fact; “[Garland] knows that his nomination exists largely as a political lever against Republicans.”
  • Not quite a perfect anagram for that other guy; alas.

Follow all of Slate’s coverage of the Garland nomination here

Hillary Clinton learned a lot from losing to Barack Obama in 2008, Jamelle Bouie writes: “She and her team have reverse-engineered Obama’s 2008 effort, bringing ‘establishment’ resources … to bear on an insurgent-style campaign that focused on voter contacts and organizing instead of paid media and massive events.”

Marco Rubio dropped out of the GOP primary last night, and Isaac Chotiner cheered. Rubio’s concession speech “was a reminder that [his] campaign was a moral failure as well as a political one.” The candidate left the race with so little dignity intact that he’s unlikely ever to be “the bright shining political star that so many Republicans thought (and Democrats feared) he could be.” 

The prosecutors in the Tamir Rice and Laquan McDonald cases lost their primary races last night, and that’s a big victory for Black Lives Matter, Leon Neyfakh writes. The movement’s organizers “have now decisively demonstrated their ability to mobilize voters and change the direction of local politics.

Is Donald Trump inciting violence? Dahlia Lithwick asked some legal experts whether the candidate might be liable for harm done at his campaign rallies. Opinions vary; he’s walking a very fine line

For fun: Josh Levin wanted to find out who invented the “Air Ball” taunt, familiar to many a basketball fan and harried player. Here’s the deep dive

Air ball, aaaaaiiiiiirrrr ball,

Rebecca