Sensitivity to 'ordinary Americans' a key criterion of court nominees

[alp227]

By Robert Barnes and Anne E. Kornblut
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, April 26, 2010; A03

The likelihood that health-care legislation and Wall Street reform will ultimately be decided in the Supreme Court underscores the importance of a new justice, with the White House and Democrats arguing that whoever replaces retiring Justice John Stevens will be key in moving the court to uphold laws protecting "ordinary Americans."

From the moment Stevens announced April 9 that he would leave the court, President Obama, Senate Democratic leaders and sometimes fractious liberal advocacy groups have united behind Obama's assertion that the new justice must be, like Stevens, someone who "knows that in a democracy, powerful interests must not be allowed to drown out the voices of ordinary citizens."

That thinking has continued even though none of the perceived front-runners on the list to replace Stevens would seem to embody Obama's requirement that the person have a "keen understanding of how the law affects the daily lives of the American people."

As the White House studies potential candidates, hoping to name the nominee in the coming days or weeks, the latest to assert the wisdom of looking outside the "judicial monastery" was Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, who is on the list of approximately 10 candidates Obama is considering. Whether she and others who deal with "everyday people" offer something more important than judicial experience, Granholm said on CNN's "State of the Union" Sunday, is "obviously the president's call."

Read this online now: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/25/AR2010042502918_pf.html

[Hekate]

1. Kick and Rec for someone who will push back AND have the ability to persuade

[boppers]

2. Joe the plumber! errr... wait.

I don't want an ordinary American.

There's a difference between somebody who understands "everyday people", and somebody who is one.

[Clio the Leo]

3. I remember him saying something similar before choosing Justice Sotomayor.

And that's a statement *I* read to mean he wants a pragmatist and not an ideologue.

[Arkana]

4. I'm getting antsy about this--I want a name, dammit.