Thursday, October 27, 2005

Back to the Drawing Board: the Parade of Women Part II


With Hariet Mier's withdrawl of her Supreme Court nomination, Bush again is faced with sifting through the parade of female Republican judges, lawyers and dearest friends all while appeasing the conservatives and selecting a nominee that can make it through the nomination process--not an easy task. After scanning the major newspapers and blog-o-sphere, I have decided to put together a little odds sheet of potential nominees. Im sticking with the assumption that Bush will either stick with a woman or a person of color for his next nominee. This is by no means based on any scientific or for that matter sound methodology, merely my gut instinct. For those of you that are more interested in pretty pictures from Budapest and my daily activities, I will return to that ASAP. Unfortunately my life has been occupied with a lot of working on my research (reading, working on my database, meeting with Hungarians regarding water etc.), nothing too fascinating to describe on my blog..........

1. Justice Consuelo M. Callahan, 9th Circuit Court of Appeals
ODDS: 1 in 3.
Low-down: female, hispanic, Robert Novak suggested that she was Bush's preferred pick (although he turned out to be wrong it was Miers). Senate hearings for the 9th Circuit nomination went smoothly.
Achilles Heel in Nomination Process: Has been referred to as "The Dancing Queen of the Ninth Circuit", suggesting that she might actually be a gay man and not a hispanic woman, this will not go over well with the conservative senators.

2. Justice Edith Jones, 5th Circuit Court of Appeals
ODDS: 1 in 5.
Low-down. female, conservative credentials--has given speeches on the role the Supreme Court has played in the decay of American society including family relations, pornography, crime. Her comments on the Warren court include "extravagantly assumed the power to dictate new 'rights' not expressly stated in the Constitution and in so doing foisted its philosophical vision on the United States with consequences far beyond the Court's imagining." (click here for more)
Achilles Heel in Nomination: While appeasing the way-right, Jones may ruffle too many feathers in the center and left at a time when Bush himself has few feathers remaining to be plucked before the fate of his political legacy resembles that of a H5n1 virus infected swan.





3. Alberto R. Gonzales -- U.S. Attorney General
ODDS: 1 in 6
Low-Down: Hispanic male,
Why he won't be Nominated: Deemed too liberal by conservatives, made a statement reported by CBS news.com ""The constitution is what the Supreme Court says it is," Gonzales responded in the summer of 2003 when asked by Dr. John Willke, president of the Life Issues Institute, to comment on whether the document that created the US government addressed the issue of abortion." For full article click here. Would have to recuse himself in cases in which he was involved as an Attorney General (including cases having to do with terrorism).

4. Jus
tice Janice Rogers Brown -- D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals
ODDS: 1 in 4
Low-Down: Originally from Alabama, daughter of a share cropper. Nominated to her current position in 2003 but stalled in Senate for two years by Democrats opposed to her conservative/libertariarian political philosophy. Been referred to as a female Clarence Thomas, while conservatives have alligned her school of thought more with Scalia. Served on California Supreme Court. For a speech she delivered to the The Federalist Society at the University of Chicago School of Law, click here.
Risk to Bush: Fillibuster. Would a nomination of Rogers Brown (or perhaps Priscilla Owen) motivate Democrats to opt for the fillibuster in the post-fillibuster agreement era? If the Democrats claim that Rogers Brown is out of the mainstream of political thought for a Supreme Court justice although the signatories of the non-filibuster agreement agreed to cloture for Rogers Brown for the nomination of D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, then her nomination could lead to a filibuster. If the Democratic Senators who signed the fillibuster Memorandum of Understanding go ahead and filibuster a Supreme Court nominee, will there be political backlash for the Democrats? A filibuster of a Supreme Court nominee would bring even more flashbacks to the turbulent year of 1968--the Republic filibuster of the Lyndon B. Johnson's nomination of Abe Fortas.

5. Edith Brown Clement -- 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
ODDS: 1 in 8
LOW DOWN: Nominated to the 5th Circuit by Bush in 2001 and approved by a Senate vote of 99-1.
DOWNSIDE: Accussed of self-promotion by the Bush Administration? And since when did this bother the Bush Administration? Click here for story from Time.



Picture source


6. Justice Diane Sykes -- 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
ODDS: 1 in 3
LOW-DOWN: Catholic from Wisconsin. Had the support ofSenator Kohl and Senator Feingold (was this honest support for the judge or a means to get a more liberal leaning justice on the Supreme Court of Wisconsin?). Worked in private practice in Wisconsin as well as on the state supreme
court. Northwestern undergrad, Marquette Law. Confirmed by a margin of 71 to 27 to the Circuit Court.

Picture credit Sykes

Coming Soon: "If I were George W. Bush, I would pick......"(being the center/leftist/free-trade democrat, none of these possibilities particularly thrill me, but unfortunately it is not my choice to make). The ideal candidate for a Bush nominee would be a Harvard/Yale/Princeton graduate, summa cum laude, a conservative African-American woman from the South, 49-50 years of age, well-known to Bush or at least Bush's friends, with a short tenure on a Circuit Court (long enough to hold some gravitas, short enough to not have a long paper trail), a member of the Federalist Society, who will stick to her judicial philosophy and is a strict constructionist. But this woman does not exist. The question is which of these traits is most important to Bush and from that one will be able to figure out who is the next nominee.

CBS provided a list of potential candidates for the replacement of Sandra Day O'Connor awhile back.

Alberto R. Gonzales -- U.S. Attorney General
Larry D. Thompson -- Pepsico General Counsel, Former Deputy U.S. AG
Karen J. Williams -- 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge
Edith Brown Clement -- 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
Alice Batchelder -- 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
J. Michael Luttig -- 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
Edith Jones -- 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals
J. Harvie Wilkinson -- 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
Priscilla Owen -- 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
Samuel R. Alito Jr. -- 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
Michael McConnell -- 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
Maura Corrigan -- Michigan Supreme Court
Janice Rogers Brown -- D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals
Emilio Garza -- 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
Diane Sykes -- 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
Ricardo Hinojosa -- U.S. District Court in Texas
Consuelo Callahan -- 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
Miguel Estrada -- Attorney
Sen. Mel Martinez (R-FL)

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