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Election May Cause Big Shift in Court Decisions
By
Kim Eisler
Published Monday, April 07, 2008
There hasn’t been a Democratic appointment to the Supreme Court since Stephen Breyer’s in 1994, and the next two or three vacancies are expected to come from the liberal side of the bench with John Paul Stevens, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, and David Souter tabbed as most likely to depart next. The five-man conservative majority— John Roberts, Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, and Clarence Thomas—seems set to continue through another presidential cycle.
Democrats worry about the possibility of a Republican president replacing the liberals left on the court. As a senator, John McCain was part of the bipartisan Gang of 14 that united to weed out some of President Bush’s more ideological judge selections. The most intriguing McCain preference, given his Vietnam War background, would be Viet Dinh, a Harvard Law–educated former Justice Department official who was a key figure behind the USA Patriot Act. Dinh fled Vietnam for the United States in 1978, and his story of escape and survival—12 days in a boat with no food or water—almost rivals McCain’s in drama and courage. Sources say McCain is drawn to the escape narrative as much as to Dinh’s conservative ideology. Solicitor General Paul Clement would also be at the top of any short list. For a new Democratic president, former solicitor general Seth Waxman is considered the next justice in waiting. He is a busy partner at Washington’s WilmerHale. But a President Barack Obama might appoint Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick to the high court. To replace Ruth Bader Ginsberg, the almost-certain top choice for a Democrat would be 47-year-old Harvard Law School dean Elena Kagan, a former lawyer at Williams & Connolly, who once clerked for Obama legal hero Thurgood Marshall. She was a professor at the University of Chicago when Obama was working in law and politics there. She is also a favorite of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s, having worked in the Bill Clinton White House on domestic policy. Kagan is wired. To see more posts on media, politics and the Washington scene, click here.
This article can be found in the April 2008 issue of The Washingtonian.
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Comments
How about a lawyer for the next time a new bridge or dam needs to be designed? Let’s "shake up" the school kids’ bus rides with a 90 year-old driver. Maybe Colin Powell would do as good a job on SCOTUS as he did on Iraq.
Posted by: Rehnquist's Ghost, Apr 09, 2008 06:46:41 PM
David Lat for chief!!!!!!! The BEST voice on law evah!!!!!!
Posted by: Franakap, Apr 08, 2008 06:20:08 PM
How about an Engineer, Accountant or Doctor?
Posted by: Charles Case, Apr 08, 2008 04:47:38 PM
Interesting that Gov. Patrick is on the list. Dean Kagan would make a great justice.
Posted by: schiller, Apr 08, 2008 11:21:09 AM
s-o-t-o-m-a-y-o-r
Posted by: sonia, Apr 08, 2008 07:09:24 AM
What about Dean Koh? Or do we have to wait for Lat to be our first Asian justice?
Posted by: YLS for Koh, Apr 08, 2008 03:43:42 AM
Thank god Harold Koh is not on this list.
Posted by: Anon, Apr 07, 2008 03:20:36 PM
12:44 - it makes for more drama and better bathroom reading this way, satisfying the two most important qualities of Washingtonian articles.
Posted by: anon2, Apr 07, 2008 02:11:01 PM
Boring! I am getting tired of a bench drawn exclusively from the legal world. Let’s shake things up a bit! Wouldn’t it be amazing to see Bill Clinton on the bench (a thought already mentioned by other SCOTUS speculators). How about Colin Powell - wouldn’t that be fascinating.
Even the most political, Deval Patrick, has spent his share of time inside the judiciary. Isn’t it time to shake up the bench with a maverick that is not committed to the boredom of judicial ideology? How about a real shaker - Robert Menendez or Jesse Jackson, Jr.. Don’t get me wrong, I think Deval Patrick would certainly spice things up a bit... but let’s stay away from the Ivory Towers.
Posted by: Discontent, Apr 07, 2008 01:56:49 PM
Strange that none of the would-be nominees are drawn from the federal bench, from which every sitting Supreme Court justice was drawn.
Posted by: anon, Apr 07, 2008 12:44:21 PM
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