Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland is getting the cold shoulder from the Republican Party and faces a political standoff as Obama puts forward his nominee for the Court.

As USA Today reported, the nomination of the Judge was a high point for him, but may represent yet another low point in Washington rivalries.

So when Garland stood in the White House Rose Garden on Wednesday to accept what he called the greatest honor in his life, that was probably the high point of the process. Instantly, he became a symbol of the dysfunction and partisan rancor that has degraded Congress and helped create some of the ugliest election-year rhetoric in modern memory.

The Washington Post says that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has told President Barack Obama’s nominee to the Supreme Court that the Senate won’t consider his nomination.

McConnell spokesman Don Stewart says the Senate’s majority leader spoke to nominee Merrick Garland by phone on Wednesday. Stewart says McConnell repeated his long-held position that the Senate won’t consider a nominee for the high court until the next president nominates one.

Many Republicans support McConnell’s opposition to considering any Obama selection with both McConnell and many other GOP senators say they wouldn’t even meet with a nominee for the Court, arousing more political debate.

Stewart says McConnell felt it was more considerate of Garland to talk by phone, and not subject him to “more unnecessary political routines orchestrated by the White House.”