On Wednesday morning in the Rose Garden of the White House, President Barack Obama announced that he would be nominating federal Judge Merrick Garland to fill the Supreme Court vacancy left by the passing of Justice Antonin Scalia.

Even setting aside the election year complications of this nomination to the highest court, conservatives would be hard-pressed to offer up their support for the moderate Garland, seeing as how he has ruled against the Second Amendment in the past.

But Garland’s positions on a variety of social issues remain unclear as well, despite his sitting on a federal bench in D.C. since being appointed during the Clinton administration.

It is Garland’s unknown stance on such hot-button issues as abortion that led to the almost conspiratorial nature of a picture that was taken following Garland’s nomination which revealed a special guest entering the White House, presumably to hold a meeting with Obama and Garland.