WASHINGTON —  Merrick Garland has met with two supportive Senate Democratic leaders and spoken by phone to more of his Republican opponents. But he’s moved no closer to weakening the GOP barricade against changing his status from Supreme Court nominee to justice.

President Barack Obama’s pick to fill the late Antonin Scalia’s seat made his first courtesy calls on Capitol Hill Thursday, receiving predictably favorable reviews from Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid and Sen. Patrick Leahy, top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Yet if anything, GOP leaders dug in even further against considering his nomination, and senators left town for a two-week recess.

Saying that Garland’s confirmation “could fundamentally alter the direction of the court for a generation,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Republicans would “act as a check and balance” to prevent Obama from tilting the court’s 4-4 balance in the liberal direction and move on to other issues.

The No. 2 Senate GOP leader, John Cornyn of Texas, branded as “completely unacceptable” talk by a few Republican senators of considering Garland during a lame duck session should a Democrat win the White House in November’s elections.

“To do it in a lame duck would to me be completely illegitimate,” Cornyn said, citing Senate GOP leaders’ insistence that as a matter of principle, the chamber will only consider a nominee by whoever becomes the next president.