The man nominated by President Barack Obama to be the next US Supreme Court justice, Merrick Garland, has paid tribute to his Jewish grandparents for their role in helping him reach America's highest legal office.

As he accepted the nomination in the White House Rose Garden, Mr Garland said: "My family deserves much of the credit for the path that led me here. My grandparents left the Pale of Settlement at the border of western Russia and Eastern Europe in the early 1900s, fleeing antisemitism and hoping to make a better life for their children in America."

Chicago native Mr Garland was born to a Jewish mother and a Protestant father, and raised Jewish.

If he is appointed to the role of justice, he will be the fourth Jewish judge on the Supreme Court.