With President Obama’s Supreme Court pick official, the battle to persuade the Senate to hold hearings escalated. Leading the charge in support of nominee Merrick Garland: the Constitutional Responsibility Project, a newly formed organization made up of key members of Obama’s previous campaign teams, and “a first-ever effort to impose a disciplined, top-down leadership structure on the constellation of liberal organizations that usually wage the fight on behalf of a Democratic court nominee,” according to a New York Times account. The new group is well underway, engaging regularly with grantees such as the Center for American Progress, MoveOn.org (which is driving its own March 21st “day of action” and  “Thunderclap” campaigns), and the Lawyers Committee on Civil Rights, among others, through a coordinated campaign slugged #weneednine. How smoothly these groups will work with a new self-appointed center of gravity remains to be seen.

Republicans suffered a few defections from the ranks following their leadership’s steadfast refusal to grant the new nominee a hearing, as several indicated they would meet with Garland and others indicated they might even agree to hold a vote in a lame-duck session following the November presidential election.

Secretary of State John Kerry’s declaration accusing ISIS of genocide was cheered by human rights and faith groups.

Republican establishment leaders continued to try to rally the party against Donald Trump, as Sen. Lindsey Graham endorsed fellow Sen. Ted Cruz, despite his professed distaste for his colleague. Trump warned of possible riots should he be denied the nomination if he arrives at the convention with a substantial edge in pledged delegates. Reports surfaced about the security preparations underway in Cleveland, which hosts the GOP convention this summer.

Voto Latino launched a new voter registration app. A new poll, seeking to address traditional deficiencies in getting reliable reads on the Latino community by conducting an online mobile survey, found Clinton crushing Trump in the demographic. 

Apple engineers signaled that they might well engage in civil disobedience, or quit their jobs, rather than compel with the FBI’s request for their help in unlocking an iPhone belonging to slain San Bernardino gunman Syed Farook. Grantee Electronic Frontier Foundation released a joint statement with the ACLU and Access Now, calling on the Obama administration to drop the legal challenge to Apple and urging people to join savecrypto.org, a petition and social media drive mounted by EFF and the Center for Democracy and Technology, among many other groups.

The announcement that Ted Cruz had named noted Islamophobe Frank Gaffney as a national security adviser to his presidential campaign prompted concern in the MASA community—and messaging advice and support from grantee ReThink Media.

Among other grantee activities:

--Human Rights First published a report on the backlog in US immigration courts, noting that the nation’s 254 immigration judges are overwhelmed by a pending caseload of over 500,000 claims—with each case taking on average three years to resolve.  

--A MoveOn.org petition campaign to release Kimberly Pineda-Chavez, a 19-year-old who fled violence in Central America and is now being held in a federal immigration detention facility in Southern Georgia, has received extensive press attention, most recently in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.  

--The Brennan Center sought to capitalize on the Broadway-driven popularity of Alexander Hamilton, invoking his legacy in its arguments for why the Senate was obligated to proceed with hearings on Obama’s Supreme Court nominee.

--The Center for American Progress’s ThinkProgress updated its map of “Trump-inspired violence.”

--Muslim Advocates staff met with administration officials to discuss responses to the rising tide of hate crime and hate speech directed against the Muslim community.