[S]ome liberals may end up cautious about Garland's nomination. His record suggests he could continue the tough-on-crime approach that's come under increased scrutiny by criminal and racial justice reformers over the past few years.

The Supreme Court can play a big role in these cases, particularly by deciding what rights defendants have in court. For example, the court changed how the government can prosecute mandatory minimum sentences, but also upheld some of the harshest mandatory minimum sentences for drugs. It struck down mandatory life sentences without parole for juveniles. It gave police wide latitude to use deadly force. And so on.

Whoever replaces the conservative Scalia, then, could play a huge role in deciding how criminal justice reform moves forward. And based on Scalia and Garland's records, it's possible that Justice Garland would end up no more liberal or perhaps even more conservative than Scalia was on some criminal justice issues.