Possible SCOTUS Nominees
Posted: Fri Apr 09, 2010 8:15 am
Stephen Carter
For 27 years a professor at Yale Law School, teaching courses on subjects from intellectual property to the ethics of war, Carter has parlayed personal and professional callings into a singular career in fields of study including affirmative action and the role of civility in American life. After graduation from Yale Law in 1979, Carter served as a law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. An able chess player, he’s the author of seven books on law, religion, morals and other topics; and of four novels, one of which spent 11 weeks as a New York Times best-seller. This African American’s favorite personal reading, a range of books from the Bible to E.L. Doctorow’s Ragtime, from Thomas Aquinas to George Orwell’s 1984, reflects a restless mind and a versatility of viewpoints.
Hillary Clinton
Skeptics and cynics will certainly jump on the utterly strategic aspect of Obama naming Hill to the high court — so he won’t have to face her again for the presidency, in 2012. But more importantly, Clinton’s formidable résumé; her grasp of international affairs and her presence on that stage; and her knowledge of the working of law and government (as a lawyer and from inside the White House as resident and operator) could place her on a very short list.
Jonathan Turley
A professor at George Washington University Law School, an often-quoted expert on constitutional law and an often-sworn congressional witness on constitutional issues, Turley has the advantage of both judicial and popular credibility. As a frequent commentator on television and in op-ed pieces for leading publications, Turley has a rare intellectual visibility in the culture. No ideologue, Turley never held back in his criticism of the Bush administration on matters of warrantless wiretapping, espionage and the unconstitutionality of torture of foreign nationals. He’s been just as hard on the Obama administration for not undertaking efforts to end those policies – an adherence to principle that defines an independent judiciary.
Harold Hongju Koh
Currently Legal Adviser to the State Department, Koh, a Korean-American, pursued an interest in law that took him from Harvard (graduating summa cum laude) to Oxford, from Harvard Law School (cum laude) to service in both the Reagan and Clinton administrations. An expert in international law, national security law and human rights, Koh bears political views that are refreshingly indifferent to the customary pieties. A self-described liberal, Koh harshly criticized the Bush administration, former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in particular. As dean of Yale Law School, Koh was a champion of gay rights, seeking (unsuccessfully) to bar Pentagon recruiters from the campus over the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. But his support of Predator strikes in Afghanistan and Iraq as necessary and legally defensible to prosecute the war on terrorism gained the support of the conservative Wall Street Journal. “My one misgiving about him is that he tends to wear his convictions on his sleeve,” a law school professor told the Yale Daily News in 2007. There may be no better sleeve for those convictions than on the robe of a Supreme Court associate justice.
Charles Ogletree
Like Turley, this Harvard Law School professor and Obama adviser is also frequently quoted on television — but Ogletree’s focus has been to help shape the civic debate on matters of race and ethnicity, especially on issues pertinent to black Americans, including the role of race in death penalty cases, DNA’s role in criminal identification and the thorny issue of reparations. A former professor of both the president and first lady Michele Obama, Ogletree is the author of numerous books (two on the social impact and legacy of Brown v. Board of Education) and holds degrees from Stanford and Harvard Law.
Janet Napolitano
A former U.S. attorney and Arizona Attorney General, and one of President Obama’s most trusted advisers, Napolitano might be hamstrung by her relatively short period at the helm of Homeland Security, and tarnished somewhat by her short-sighted comments after the Christmas Day terrorist bombing attempt. But her grasp of the law’s workings at the federal level, and her knowledge of the farrago of legal issues concerning homeland security from her perspective as a resident of the border state of Arizona may be seen as an advantage in a time in which national security issues are no further from American shores than the Gulf of Mexico.
Leah Ward Sears
Nominating the former chief justice of the Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice, shortlisted last year to succeed Justice David Souter, would be a ringing endorsement of progressive principles (and no doubt the cause of a battle royal for Senate confirmation). She’s been a trailblazer for much of her life, from being the first black cheerleader at her high school to the nation’s first African-American female chief justice. While on the Georgia court, she was a champion of First, Fourth, Sixth and Eighth Amendment rights, frequently dissenting from the Georgia court majority. In a 1998 dissent, Sears was one of the justices who voted against the execution of Troy Davis, a man from Georgia whose 1991 conviction in the killing of a police officer was based on circumstantial evidence, and whose case has attracted international attention.
Laurence Tribe
The choice of this prolific author, commentator and constitutional scholar would reflect a certain poetic justice, You could call it a class reunion, of sorts: Among Tribe’s former students are the current Chief Justice, John Roberts, and … Obama himself (Tribe called the president “the best student I ever had"). Some might think that old-school tie alone may be enough to scuttle any chances for Tribe on what’s becoming “the Obama court.” But Tribe, a well-regarded professor of constitutional law at Harvard, knows the court and its procedures, having argued before the Supremes dozens of times. He’s an expert on civil rights legislation and privacy issues. And as the author of a Harvard Law Review paper exploring “what lawyers can learn from modern physics,” Tribe would seem to have what it takes to think outside the box.
Elena Kagan
The current U.S. solicitor general (the first woman to hold the office) was shortlisted to join the Supremes last year before Sotomayor was confirmed. A Princeton graduate, she clerked in the U.S. appellate court in Washington and for Justice Marshall. The Jewish native of New York City is an ardent champion of free speech rights, and was for five years the Associate Counsel in the Clinton administration before going on to become the first female dean of Harvard Law School.
Cass Sunstein
Administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, a former University of Chicago law professor, and a former Obama colleague, Sunstein has an expansive knowledge of constitutional law and would bring a blazing intellect to the high court. A legal scholar and author of more than two dozen books whose subjects run from feminism to animal rights, from human cloning to the social impact of the Internet, he combines a knowledge of the law with interests, passions and scholarly pursuits that reflect a panoramically curious intellect.
For 27 years a professor at Yale Law School, teaching courses on subjects from intellectual property to the ethics of war, Carter has parlayed personal and professional callings into a singular career in fields of study including affirmative action and the role of civility in American life. After graduation from Yale Law in 1979, Carter served as a law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. An able chess player, he’s the author of seven books on law, religion, morals and other topics; and of four novels, one of which spent 11 weeks as a New York Times best-seller. This African American’s favorite personal reading, a range of books from the Bible to E.L. Doctorow’s Ragtime, from Thomas Aquinas to George Orwell’s 1984, reflects a restless mind and a versatility of viewpoints.
Hillary Clinton
Skeptics and cynics will certainly jump on the utterly strategic aspect of Obama naming Hill to the high court — so he won’t have to face her again for the presidency, in 2012. But more importantly, Clinton’s formidable résumé; her grasp of international affairs and her presence on that stage; and her knowledge of the working of law and government (as a lawyer and from inside the White House as resident and operator) could place her on a very short list.
Jonathan Turley
A professor at George Washington University Law School, an often-quoted expert on constitutional law and an often-sworn congressional witness on constitutional issues, Turley has the advantage of both judicial and popular credibility. As a frequent commentator on television and in op-ed pieces for leading publications, Turley has a rare intellectual visibility in the culture. No ideologue, Turley never held back in his criticism of the Bush administration on matters of warrantless wiretapping, espionage and the unconstitutionality of torture of foreign nationals. He’s been just as hard on the Obama administration for not undertaking efforts to end those policies – an adherence to principle that defines an independent judiciary.
Harold Hongju Koh
Currently Legal Adviser to the State Department, Koh, a Korean-American, pursued an interest in law that took him from Harvard (graduating summa cum laude) to Oxford, from Harvard Law School (cum laude) to service in both the Reagan and Clinton administrations. An expert in international law, national security law and human rights, Koh bears political views that are refreshingly indifferent to the customary pieties. A self-described liberal, Koh harshly criticized the Bush administration, former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in particular. As dean of Yale Law School, Koh was a champion of gay rights, seeking (unsuccessfully) to bar Pentagon recruiters from the campus over the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. But his support of Predator strikes in Afghanistan and Iraq as necessary and legally defensible to prosecute the war on terrorism gained the support of the conservative Wall Street Journal. “My one misgiving about him is that he tends to wear his convictions on his sleeve,” a law school professor told the Yale Daily News in 2007. There may be no better sleeve for those convictions than on the robe of a Supreme Court associate justice.
Charles Ogletree
Like Turley, this Harvard Law School professor and Obama adviser is also frequently quoted on television — but Ogletree’s focus has been to help shape the civic debate on matters of race and ethnicity, especially on issues pertinent to black Americans, including the role of race in death penalty cases, DNA’s role in criminal identification and the thorny issue of reparations. A former professor of both the president and first lady Michele Obama, Ogletree is the author of numerous books (two on the social impact and legacy of Brown v. Board of Education) and holds degrees from Stanford and Harvard Law.
Janet Napolitano
A former U.S. attorney and Arizona Attorney General, and one of President Obama’s most trusted advisers, Napolitano might be hamstrung by her relatively short period at the helm of Homeland Security, and tarnished somewhat by her short-sighted comments after the Christmas Day terrorist bombing attempt. But her grasp of the law’s workings at the federal level, and her knowledge of the farrago of legal issues concerning homeland security from her perspective as a resident of the border state of Arizona may be seen as an advantage in a time in which national security issues are no further from American shores than the Gulf of Mexico.
Leah Ward Sears
Nominating the former chief justice of the Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice, shortlisted last year to succeed Justice David Souter, would be a ringing endorsement of progressive principles (and no doubt the cause of a battle royal for Senate confirmation). She’s been a trailblazer for much of her life, from being the first black cheerleader at her high school to the nation’s first African-American female chief justice. While on the Georgia court, she was a champion of First, Fourth, Sixth and Eighth Amendment rights, frequently dissenting from the Georgia court majority. In a 1998 dissent, Sears was one of the justices who voted against the execution of Troy Davis, a man from Georgia whose 1991 conviction in the killing of a police officer was based on circumstantial evidence, and whose case has attracted international attention.
Laurence Tribe
The choice of this prolific author, commentator and constitutional scholar would reflect a certain poetic justice, You could call it a class reunion, of sorts: Among Tribe’s former students are the current Chief Justice, John Roberts, and … Obama himself (Tribe called the president “the best student I ever had"). Some might think that old-school tie alone may be enough to scuttle any chances for Tribe on what’s becoming “the Obama court.” But Tribe, a well-regarded professor of constitutional law at Harvard, knows the court and its procedures, having argued before the Supremes dozens of times. He’s an expert on civil rights legislation and privacy issues. And as the author of a Harvard Law Review paper exploring “what lawyers can learn from modern physics,” Tribe would seem to have what it takes to think outside the box.
Elena Kagan
The current U.S. solicitor general (the first woman to hold the office) was shortlisted to join the Supremes last year before Sotomayor was confirmed. A Princeton graduate, she clerked in the U.S. appellate court in Washington and for Justice Marshall. The Jewish native of New York City is an ardent champion of free speech rights, and was for five years the Associate Counsel in the Clinton administration before going on to become the first female dean of Harvard Law School.
Cass Sunstein
Administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, a former University of Chicago law professor, and a former Obama colleague, Sunstein has an expansive knowledge of constitutional law and would bring a blazing intellect to the high court. A legal scholar and author of more than two dozen books whose subjects run from feminism to animal rights, from human cloning to the social impact of the Internet, he combines a knowledge of the law with interests, passions and scholarly pursuits that reflect a panoramically curious intellect.
