Hillary Clinton refuses to commit to Merrick Garland as her Supreme Court pick

Hillary Clinton appeared to suggest Thursday that she would consider dropping the stalled Supreme Court candidacy of Merrick Garland if she becomes president, leaving open the possibility of a younger and more liberal pick.

The Democratic nominee was asked by journalist Roland Martin during a radio appearance on the "Tom Joyner Morning Show" if she would ask President Barack Obama to withdraw Garland's nomination if she wins in November.

In response to Martin's inquiry, which concluded with a question about whether she would instead pick an African-American woman, Clinton said, "I'm going to let this president serve out his term with distinction and make the decisions that he thinks are right."

Clinton described Senate Republicans' refusal to hold hearings on Garland's nomination – for the stated reason of allowing input from the public this November – as "a disgrace."

But she continued: "If I have the opportunity to make any Supreme Court appointments I'm going to look broadly and widely for people who represent the diversity of our country, who bring some common-sense, real-world experience."

See the moment President Obama nominated Merrick Garland:

Media outlets interpreted this as a possible hint, with Bloomberg describing the comment as "Clinton's most specific yet on how she would handle the 7-month-old vacancy."

After Justice Antonin Scalia's sudden death in February, Obama selected Garland, 63, as a moderate option who might have a shot at replacing the conservative jurist. Republican senators took a gamble and said they wanted to wait for the results of the next election.

Garland is chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and would become the fourth sitting Jewish justice. He would not add to the court's racial diversity, however, and earned a lukewarm reception from progressives.

Garland "rarely votes in favor of criminal defendants' appeals," SCOTUSBlog co-founder Tom Goldstein wrote in 2010, assessing that he also has "strong views favoring deference to agency decisionmakers" and that in a dozen contentious votes, "he sided with the agency every time."

Among Garland's controversial rulings are his 2013 opinion for a three-judge panel exempting White House visitor logs from mandatory public disclosure and a 1997 opinion for a panel that upheld the legality of a warrantless trunk search based on evidence of personal drug use.

In contrast to Clinton's coyness, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in July offered a list of 11 people he would consider nominating to the Supreme Court if he becomes president.

A Clinton campaign spokeswoman did not immediately respond for a request for clarification on Clinton's stance on renominating Garland.

Related: See Hillary Clinton through the years:

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