President Barack Obama nominates Merrick Garland to the U.S. Supreme Court today.

Pesident Obama intends to nominate Merrick Garland, the chief judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, to the Supreme Court, two congressional officials said Wednesday.

A judicial moderate who at 63 is older than other finalists, Garland could be meant to signal compromise on Obama’s part as Republicans have vowed not to consider any potential nominee. Still, Obama has the opportunity to tilt the nation’s highest court to a liberal majority for the first time in a generation.

Garland was a leading contender for the last vacancy, in 2010. If confirmed, Garland would be the oldest justice to join the Supreme Court since Lewis Powell, who was 64 when he joined the court in 1972.