'No person better' for Supreme Court seat, ex-Omaha planning chief Marty Shukert says of cousin Merr

I know Marty. I believe Garland Law (malpractice 35 years) in Omaha is related too.

OS

http://www.omaha.com/news/politics/no-person-better-for-supreme-court-seat-ex-omaha-planning/article_d042bdfe-eb94-11e5-8cca-571738c6f824.html

POSTED: WEDNESDAY, MARCH 16, 2016 11:33 AM | UPDATED: 1:26 PM, WED MAR 16, 2016.
By Joseph Morton / World-Herald Bureau

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama introduced his Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland to the country Wednesday in the Rose Garden, but Marty Shukert remembers running around the backyard with him as a youngster.

“We grew up together,” Shukert told The World-Herald on Wednesday in between phone calls from excited relatives. “I’m in a little bit of a daze.”

The two are first cousins. Shukert, 66, is two-and-a-half years older than Garland. His mother and Garland’s father are siblings. Another note for the it’s-a-small-world file is that their second cousin is Iowa’s GOP Gov. Terry Branstad.

Shukert recalled family vacations were primarily visits to Garland’s family in Chicago. As the older boy, he was expected to be the more mature one and keep them from getting into too much trouble.

FULL story at link.