What the President will be looking for in a Supreme Court nominee

[grantcart]

He will not be looking for a firebrand leftist and he won't be concerned about getting the nominee confirmed.

As a result there will be hundreds of threads about the betrayal of the President (as their was with Sotomayor) at DU and there will be hundreds of hours in the MSM about the meaning of the politics of the nominee.

What the President will be looking for is a mainstream liberal judge who can help form majorities.

What DU doesn't get is that in a divided court we don't need another Justice Douglas who alienates the other Justices but an Earl Warren who can help build majorities. This is why the White House includes someone with practical political experience as one of the qualities that they would like.

This is why Sotomayor was such a brilliant choice. Yes selecting a Hispanic was important (and that part of the politics of the selection is important) but she seems to have the interpersonal skills to move her colleagues while a true firebrand does not.

This is why Republican Justices like Thomas, Scalia and Alito are such poor choices, they don't help build conservative majorities.

The next nominee should be someone who is liberal, young and fills a demographic need but they should also be someone who can influence Kennedy. A pure ideological choice will be a safe vote but that vote will lead to more minority opinions than someone that is more mainstream.

So expect to see the President nominate someone with good liberal credentials but not someone who is considered 'pure', 'firebrand' or 'ideological'.

Also expect DU to be full of critical threads and miss the main point of the appointment.

[NJmaverick]

1. Excellent points, thanks for sharing

[quiet.american]

2. Good insights, thanks. nt

[Arkana]

3. Shortlist names: Elena Kagan, Merrick Garland, Diane Wood, and Pamela Karlan.

No matter who is chosen, I expect the right to brand them a firebrand leftist and the left to brand them a corporatist sellout.

[grantcart]

4. Tobin was just on CNN making the same point of the OP and named Kagan

as the one that was most effective in building consensus.

[Arkana]

5. My guess is it will be her or Wood.

[Cha]

6. Kagan

:)

[Hekate]

7. Interpersonal skills are often undervalued by ideologues, aren't they? Just one question...

Are any of these potential nominees Roman Catholic? I only ask because at the moment we have a whopping six RCs out of the Nine members of the SCOTUS, and some of the most radically conservative have ties to Opus Dei (with some others unconfirmed). We know that Justice Sotomayor would never go there -- but personally I think the SCOTUS needs more diversity. Also more women.

Hekate

[POAS]

8. A quick search revealed

Kagan was born to a Jewish family. Found no reference to her present religious practice.

Garland is Jewish.

Wood is Protestant.

Karlan, Could not find a reference to her religious affiliation but she is an open lesbian.

[Hekate]

9. TY. We shall have diversity. nt

[cliffordu]

10. Yep, expect another endless round of Obama===FAIL posts and OP's.

[Cha]

11. Whereas in reality..

Pres Obama is the opposite of fail. :D

[cliffordu]

12. Yep. he would be "Not fail"