I’m kinda surprised that Obama would go with Chief Judge Merrick Garland (as the leaks seem to be indicating) over Srinivasan, but we are talking about a Chief Judge of a Circuit Court of Appeals who has seniority over a newish federal judge.

His name has come up before, and this writeup of Garland by Scotusblog in 2010 still applies.

By all accounts, he is widely respected and a brilliant jurist.