"Another Name on President Obama's Supreme Court Short List"

[Clio the Leo]

Another Name on President Obama's Supreme Court Short List
April 12, 2010 7:01 AM

Last Friday we told you that President Obama's short list of possible nominees to replace Justice John Paul Stevens on the US Supreme Court contains fewer than 10 names.

We told you that 7th circuit Court of Appeals Judge Diane Wood, Solicitor General Elena Kagan, DC Court of Appeals Judge Merrick Garland and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano are on the short, list -- and now we've learned another.

Former Georgia Supreme Court chief justice Leah Ward Sears is also on the short list, a senior White House official tells ABC News.‬

Sears, who will turn 55 in June, was the first female African-American chief justice in US history, and when nominated for the state supreme court by then-Gov. Zell Miller in 1992, she became the first woman and the youngest person to ever sit on the court.‬

She stepped down from the court last year and currently practices law at Schiff Hardin.‬

A graduate of Emory University Law School, Sears was on President Obama’s short list last year. A member of the left-leaning American Constitution Society, she is also a friend of conservative Justice Clarence Thomas.‬

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2010/04/another-name-on-president-obamas-supreme-court-short-list.html#comments

(this is NOT her family ... I'm posting this because I like the brooch in her hair. ;) )




Given the fact that this is a WH sourced bit of info you HAVE to think she is a front-runner. It would be politically foolish for Barack Obama to float the idea of choosing the first African American female SCOTUS pick and NOT choose her.

Oh, but wait, that's not even the best part...

SCOTUS: Georgia Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears "Strong" on Gay Rights

In the earlier post on the retirement of Supreme Court Justice David Souter, one of the names we mentioned as a potential successor is Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears. ABC News, The Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and many others now report Sears is on the President's "short list" of possible nominees. Sears is a "strong" advocate on gay rights issues, Southern Voice reports:

Sears’ legal opinions on gay-related issues, including voting with the majority to overturn Georgia’s sodomy law, drew efforts from conservatives to unseat her. In 2004, Gov. Sonny Perdue and the Georgia Christian Coalition backed Grant Brantley in the race; Sears won easily.

Sears also opposed the legislature's ultimately successful attempt to place an anti same-sex marriage amendment on the ballot, writing in the dissent the process "would change the Constitution in more ways than one and thus 'amend the state Constitution by stealth.' "

The chief justice also wrote the majority opinion and the ended the imprisonment of 21-year-old Genarlow Wilson, who had been serving a 10-year sentence for having consensual oral sex with another teenager when he was 17-years-old. Sears said the harsh sentence was "grossly disproportionate" to the crime, which "did not rise to the level of culpability of adults who prey on children."

http://rodonline.typepad.com/rodonline/2009/05/scotus-short-lister-leah-ward-sears-is-strong-on-gay-rights.html

It has always been my contention that the ultimate place to fight the DOMA battle HAS to be the Supreme Court (and not the Congress) because that's the only place effect lasting change. (a la Brown v. Topeka)

[annabanana]

1. I'm liking it, but my first instinct is to keep the possibility

on the down low. She is too good to have the lies pile up too high or too often. I would hate to see the media land heavy footed early in the process.

[rurallib]

2. jeez- Zell Miller put her on the georgia court?

Zell Miller?

[annabanana]

3. I know...but..

before his hysterical (in two senses of the word) meltdown, he was the author of this statement:

I know what Dan Quayle means when he says it's best for children to have two parents. You bet it is! And it would be nice for them to have trust funds, too. We can't all be born rich and handsome and lucky. And that's why we have a Democratic Party. My family would still be isolated and destitute if we had not had F.D.R.'s Democratic brand of government. I made it because Franklin Delano Roosevelt energized this nation. I made it because Harry Truman fought for working families like mine. I made it because John Kennedy's rising tide lifted even our tiny boat. I made it because Lyndon Johnson showed America that people who were born poor didn't have to die poor. And I made it because a man with whom I served in the Georgia Senate, a man named Jimmy Carter, brought honesty and decency and integrity to public service

Not a big Zell fan here.. I know he was an old Dixiecrat, but he DID serve before the days of hyper-polarization and the "purification" of the parties and his perspectives may have been more nuanced when he appointed her.

[Hekate]

18. Zowie. That is a terrific insight on the pre-meltdown Zell Miller! Than you for that. nt

[Hippo_Tron]

7. Zell Miller used to be an actual Democrat when he was Governor

There's a number of theories as to why he changed so much and one of them is that he felt snubbed by Clinton for not giving him a cabinet position.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

9. His RNC keynote address (what I've heard of it anyway)

was AWFUL! Somebody must have really stuck something in his "craw" to make him go insane enough to slander and smear a DEMOCRATIC candidate for POTUS and endorse Bush/Cheney for (re-)election in 2004. However, even by 2001, he was apparently still praising Kerry, so something else *traumatic* must've happened to make him change his tune.

[karynnj]

20. Could it have been 911 and the fact that we were at war?

Though that should not have led to the personal attacks on John Kerry. Reading the earlier comments, which showed real respect and as much as you can tell, friendliness towards John Kerry.

The only thing I think of is that he is from a generation when you said nothing against the President and did not criticize how he was fighting a war. This is alien to me, a child of the sixties, but I was stunned to hear my parents, who are swing voters, take that point of view. I heard about it only years after 2004, when I asked my mom why she so strongly disliked John Kerry. From what I knew of Kerry, he should have been a candidate that she should really have liked - both for his character and the work he did in the Senate. The reason was that she felt it was wrong that he said it was not a war of last resort - meaning to my Catholic mom that it was not a just war and that he spoke against how it was being run - even though she agreed that he was right that much was done wrong.

Now, to most here the idea that Kerry was too outspoken against the war is a pretty rare opinion. I mentioned that the dominant feeling on the left was that Kerry should have gone further - which stunned her.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

21. Kerry wasn't as vocal about Iraq as most of us here would've liked

but that would go for pretty much the entire Democratic Party post-9/11 and particularly in 2004 when they eschewed partisan attacks on Bush/Cheney that could be viewed badly because, I guess, apparently they had so internalized the Republicans' ironic attack that Democrats had nothing but rage and hatred towards Bush/Cheney to offer (which although not entirely true was wholly justified IMHO if it were).
Meanwhile, of course, the Republicans could be (and were) as nasty as they wanted to be, particularly during their national convention at which Zell- who should've been fighting for OUR side- was smearing Kerry with all kinds of falsehoods and scurrilous attacks.

And Iraq most definitely was NOT a war of last resort. I would've been proud to have had Kerry for POTUS in 2004 and I think he would've made a pretty good POTUS. Unfortunately, we will never see what it would've been like but at least he's got a terrific leadership post in the Senate now.

[karynnj]

25. In 1992, the Republicans WERE punished for a very nasty convention

- with Pat Buchanan and Marilyn Quayle being the ugliest. I think that the media not condemning, but praising the atrocious Bush convention speeches, hurt more than the speeches themselves. There was no outrage at all from anyone in the media - let alone any Republican - when official delegates, likely pillars in their home communities wore purple heart bandaids. To me, that was sickening. All because the Republicans felt they could not let that true part of Kerry's record stand - he was a war hero. The media's lack of outrage, seemed to almost send a sign that Kerry and the Democrats deserved that treatment.

Kerry's convention, while it was happening, was highly praised. It was positive and Kerry's speech was very good. (Obama's conveyed a message that Kerry wanted for the campaign - which Obama blew everyone away with the grace and eloquence with which he did it.) Only after the hatefest, did people start to define it as the "good" convention - and Kerry's as weak because he didn't do the same.

But, the other alternative would have been worse, had Kerry and the Democrats had a Democratic hatefest - which would be hard to imagine Kerry, who didn't do that as a 27 year old activist - doing, it would have backfired. He would have been been slammed as unlikable, unPresidential and he would have at that point for all purposes lost any chance of winning. Bush and the republicans would then have likely had an upbeat crowning of Bush as the noble leader, who got us past 911. Kerry's loss would not only have been bigger, but he would likely have been ashamed of the campaign - something Bush did not need to worry about because I doubt he set the same standards for himself.

I think Kerry would have been a good President, in a very tough situation. The 109th Congress was incredibly dysfunctional and the country had not yet seen how much damage Bush did. You've seen the Republicans try to argue that all the current problems are the fault of Obama or the Democrats. But only 20% of the country thought we were going in the right direction in 2008, on the eve of the election in 2004, Gallup asked the question differently - and found that 59% answered that the country was doing either "very well" or "fairly well". Only on foreign policy, where there is a lot the President can do without needing approval, could Kerry have made things less bad. However, no one would know they were less bad.

I think he is a very good person, who has already quietly, often getting little credit, done a lot. I loved his comment last Thanksgiving when asked what he was thankful for:

"Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry: "I've got a ton to be thankful for this year starting with the love and health of my family and friends, including a new son-in law. My friend and mentor Ted Kennedy's passing especially reminds me how lucky I am to have the gift of his teaching over the years and also the blessing of good health, and a brand new hip that feels better by the day.

“I'm grateful for the skill and commitment of our troops, especially those who are spending this holiday away from families and loved ones. The funerals of two Massachusetts soldiers this month were a tough reminder of the ultimate sacrifice made for our country, and their families and all the families of the fallen are on our minds this Thanksgiving. I'm thankful that Massachusetts has continued to give me the privilege of serving in the Senate when so many big issues are being debated and decided, and I'll continue to do my best to meet the expectations folks have placed in me."
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/11/26/thanksgiving-thoughts-from-washington-and-beyond/

When you look at so many politicians who have completely destroyed part or all of their lives, he seems to have his values and priorities right.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

28. I really agree with you about the GOP hatefest in 2004

and the purple band-aids were really OTT. It sickened me that, aside from Obama's masterful speech, the corporate media whores barely noticed the Democratic convention but praised the GOP to the nines despite how hateful many of its participants were. I thought that the 2008 GOP RNC speeches were bad too, most notably Sarah Palin's speech insulting community organizers (of all people), which was particularly nasty IMHO. However, I guess as long as the corporate media whores choose to cover/praise negativity, I guess we won't see much coverage of more positive things and give people like Kerry, Obama, etc. the kind of coverage they deserve IMHO. BTW if you're interested, you can download the audio of Obama's 2004 keynote speech. It's hard to believe sometimes that just a short four years after that speech he was elected POTUS (and doing a damned fine job at it too IMHO!).

[WI_DEM]

8. Something happened to Zell when he went to the senate--he went nuts or something.

[KingFlorez]

4. Sounds like a good choice

[Nancy Waterman]

5. Sounds like a great choice

assuming she is at least reasonably centrist or center-left.

[jenmito]

6. Pete Williams on MSNBC mentioned her name this morning as being on the "list."

I hope he's right!

[RubyDuby in GA]

10. We worked so hard to get her elected and were a bit miffed when she left office early, but

if it gets her a seat on SCOTUS, then HOT DAMN!!!!!!!!!!

[FrenchieCat]

11. I was hoping for her the last time......although I loved who we ended up with.....

What I wrote about Sears back in May of '09:

http://demopedia.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=8400007&mesg_id=8400188

[liberalpragmatist]

12. She would be good

Like I said on another thread, I'm hoping for Diane Wood, but Obama could do a lot worse than Sears. Don't forget that Sears would also add to the court's diversity in other ways besides her race and gender - her geographic background (South, rather than Midwest/NE like everybody else), her academic background (Emory Law rather than Harvard or Yale), and her judicial experience (state judiciary, not federal appeals court). Many have also argued that there's a paucity of political and elective experience on the Supreme Court. While I would like to see an actual politician on the bench again - a governor or a senator - as a judge who had to run for election, Sears can claim some of that too. (Although I do have to add that I don't really approve of judicial elections on principle.)

[Bullet1987]

13. I'm going to be the first to say it...

African-Americans need a much better representative on the Supreme Court other than Clarence Thomas. That guy is a joke, can't wait to see him leave the position.

[polichick]

24. +1

[annabanana]

26. I find it interesting that she's a "friend" of Thomas.

I wonder if she's a good enough friend to sway his opinions?

[onpatrol98]

31. Same hometown or something like that...

[jefferson_dem]

14. Love Judge Ward Sears , from way back. She or Deval Patrick would be my dream pick.

Don't think either will happen though.

[retread]

15. The best choice he could make!

http://weeseeyou.com/2010/04/07/for-your-consideration-mr-president-leah-ward-sears-for-the-u-s-supreme-court

[mkultra]

16. Hell yeah!

[LeftyAndProud60]

17. As a person of color, I don't see how any other person of color can like Thomas. I hope she doesn't

get it.

[Hekate]

19. Based on HER record, I don't see that as any sort of disqualifier. She sounds like a gem.

Thomas is a toad. Meh.

Hekate

[polichick]

23. She does seem like a good pick though - inexplicable as that friendship might be. nt

[ILFightinDem]

29. Careful...

Would you believe our beloved Justice Ginsburg actually vacationed with and socializes with Scalia? I didn't believe it myself until I heard her say in in an interview (60 Minutes) for a piece they did on him. They are both fond of opera and go together often, I understand.

Given that, I could understand Thomas having a friend or two. They're better folks than me - I couldn't really stomach it. But on to another thought... This pick requires two things - a person who will pick up the leadership torch Justice Stephens leaves behind; he often marshalled our bloc. I can potentially see Justice Breyer in this role, but I think we shoot for the moon. The other role is to 'get to five' - to swing votes from the other side to ours (although Kennedy seems comfortable these days siding with Roberts and his ilk; Stephens used to swing him and O'Connor frequently). From what I read (and I admittedly don't know much about Ward Sears), the one name that seems to be sufficiently left and labled as 'consensus builder' seems to be Dianne Wood (yes, she's local to my neck of the woods). But this will likely be Obama's last 'easy' SCOTUS pick, given the current majority we have in the Senate; we may as go for the best person we can now (and sufficiently young - it's too bad I'm seeing mid-fifties for the age of all the names we're hearing about now). Maybe we can get lucky and there'll be a stealth pick who's on the near side of fifty.

How's Ward Sears' record on the Georgia court - was she one to swing decisions? If she was, I could get behind her, no problem.

[onpatrol98]

33. Not to mention

Not to mention...Utah Senator Orrin Hatch and Robert Kennedy were close. In fact, I have to wonder if that wasn't one of the things that made him a great negotiator. I know everyone loves Alan Grayson, but contrast his style with Kennedy. Kennedy was able to have friends and move an agenda because he could get to know people. The "Lion" had lots of friends in all kinds of places.

[Metric System]

22. It sounds like she'd be a good choice.

[Number23]

27. big ol' kick for Judge Sears!

Hopefully my prediction from last year comes true this year! http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=258x5577

[ruggerson]

30. being against a state amendment to its constitution

does not translate into a surefire vote against DOMA.

I'd like to read up on her, but wonder why you're sure she'd find DOMA unconstitutional. Has she ruled in similar cases?

[Jennicut]

32. I like her common sense at the very least.

The original sentence of Genarlow Wilson was ridiculous. As far as being friends with Thomas, she would have to get along with the conservatiev judges on the bench anyway. My own parents are conservatives, we are friends. I don't believe in anything they do.

[southerncrone]

34. A friend of Clarence Thomas......hmmmm.