Free Republic

Paul Clement, who served as U.S. solicitor general under President George W. Bush and is now a lawyer in private practice, is the favorite of many conservatives. Clement argued last month for the Supreme Court to strike down Obama's 2010 healthcare law, and he is defending laws that ban same-sex marriage and that target illegal immigrants. Clement, 45, would be "at the top of any short list right now," said Curt Levey, executive director of the Committee for Justice, a group that advocates for conservative nominees. Asked about Clement, Mary Ann Glendon, a co-chairwoman of Romney's Justice Advisory Committee, voiced...

. You were nominated for the Seventh Circuit by President Bush after being recommended, along with three others, by a bipartisan commission. Wisconsin Senators Herb Kohl (D) and Russell Feingold (D), and Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R), who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, forwarded all four names recommended by the commission to the White House. Such a process is somewhat unusual, but your nomination was not bogged down by a threat of filibuster in the Senate, and while your confirmation was not unanimous, Senators Kohl and Feingold voted in favor of your confirmation. Could you please tell us more about how...

If Edith Jones is nominated for the Supreme Court, at least she'll know what she's in for. The confirmation process for federal judges has deteriorated into "trench warfare," she told The American Enterprise magazine in June. "Every time I think it can't get any worse, it does." John Roberts's confirmation may be the exception that proves Judge Jones's rule. During his hearings, Sens. Arlen Specter and Dianne Feinstein asked insulting questions about his Catholicism; Ted Kennedy called his Reagan-era writings "mean-spirited"; and several Democrats roughed him up over his views on civil rights. By modern standards, that's a love fest....

Sykes, Diane S. Born 1957 in Milwaukee, WI Federal Judicial Service: U. S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit Nominated by George W. Bush on November 14, 2003, to a seat vacated by John L. Coffey; Confirmed by the Senate on June 24, 2004, and received commission on July 1, 2004. Education: Northwestern University, B.S., 1980 Marquette University Law School, J.D., 1984 Professional Career: Law clerk, Hon. Terence T. Evans, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, 1984-1985 Private practice, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 1985-1992 Judge, Milwaukee County Circuit Court, Wisconsin, 1992-1999 Justice, Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1999-2004 Race...

MILWAUKEE, WI (Talon News) -- According to a number of Republican insiders and a prominent Milwaukee radio talk show host, Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Diane Sykes is going to be President Bush's nominee for a vacant seat on the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago. Mark Belling, Milwaukee's top talk show host and a regular fill-in for Rush Limbaugh's national radio show, revealed on his Monday afternoon talk show that his sources in the Republican Party confirmed the selection of Sykes. Sykes was one of four finalists recommended by the Federal Nominating Commission of the State Bar of...