White House Researching Potential Justices

AP ^ | 5-29-05 | Deb Riechmann

[STARWISE]

WASHINGTON (AP) - The White House has laid the groundwork to place more conservatives on the Supreme Court, scrutinizing the backgrounds and legal views of a shrinking list of candidates amid speculation that ailing Chief Justice William Rehnquist soon will step down.

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Court experts expect that Rehnquist, who is battling thyroid cancer, will leave by the end of June when the current court session concludes.

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"They have been winnowing the list down for some time now. I imagine they're down to maybe three or five - a handful anyway - who are their first choices," he said.

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John McGinnis, a law professor at Northwestern University and former deputy assistant attorney general in the Justice Department's office of legal counsel, said he thinks Bush already might have made up his mind.

"This White House - I congratulate it on its ability to be secret," McGinnis said. "It's entirely possible that Rehnquist has already communicated his intention to step down and the White House has a plan absolutely set."

[STARWISE]

Solicitor General Ted Olson, seen in this Dec. 11, 2000, file photo, has been mentioned as a potential U.S. Supreme Court nominee.

Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson, center, head of the Justice Department's Corporate Fraud Task Force, talks with reporters in Washington in this Oct. 17, 2002, file photo. At left, Michael Chertoff, then head of the Justice Department's Criminal Division, and FBI Deputy Director Bruce Gebhardt, right, listen. Thompson has been mentioned as a potential U.S. Supreme Court nominee.

[Paleo Conservative]

Ted Olson would make an awesome Chief Justice!

[FormerLib]

Research? Sure, just call Scalia and Thomas for a list of their recommendations!

[jocon307]

They absolutely should put Olsen up for the nomination. And if the dems start b*tching about him they should bang the drum of his poor wife, the beloved Barbar Olsen (may she RIP) killed by terrorists on 9/11/01.

The stupid Republicans better get a clue that the MAJORITY of Americans agree with them, not with the dems, not with the NY Times. Hello! That's why you are in power in the White House and both houses of congress. And they better start to take this case to the public. Bush did it well enough while running, but the Party is letting him down after this election.

[Thom Pain]

Judge Robert Bork.

[TrailofTears]

clarence thomas

[Blood of Tyrants]

The problem is not the GOP as a whole but the RINO's in the party. The GOp needs to know that as long as they keep wupporting RINOS like Chafee and Snowe and Collins and McCainiac that they are not going to get another dime for us.

[lawdude]

Scalia for CJ, Ted Olson to replace Scalia.

[Paleo Conservative]

They absolutely should put Olsen up for the nomination. And if the dems start b*tching about him they should bang the drum of his poor wife, the beloved Barbar Olsen (may she RIP) killed by terrorists on 9/11/01.

I sure wish Barbara Olson were alive to see it.

[econ_grad]

Here are my recommendations: John Easterbrook, Richard Posner, Richard Epstein.

[arasina]

Ted Olson...that would be sweet. He did a wonderful job in his arguments during Florida Fiasco 2000. (R.I.P., Barbara Olson)

[CurlyDave]

The White House has laid the groundwork to place more conservatives on the Supreme Court...

Where does the AP come up with this stuff?

How can they possibly say more conservatives?

We are hoping to replace one conservative with another. The RATs will play this out as "appointing a new conservative", will find "extreme circumstances", and will filibuster.

The simple truth is that a conservative justice will not in any way be "more conservatives", nor will he tip the balance in our favor.

A conservative judge will maintain the status quo.

[Clintonfatigued]

I'll make a prediction: Bush will nominate Associate Justice Antonin Scalia for Chief Justice and Federal Appeals Judge Michael Luttig to succeed Scalia.

Here's another prediction: because these nominations would not change the court's ideological balance, the 'Rats won't fight too hard to stop the nominations. It's if John Paul Stevens and Sandra Day O'Conner retire that they'll stop at nothing to win.

[Clintonfatigued]

Lincoln Chafee and Olympia Snowe may face conservative primary challenges next year. So they may hesitate to buck Bush on something like this.

[CGTRWK]

As hard as getting a conservative onto the court is, we need a young guy who will be able to stay there for a long time. Ted Olson would be a good justice while he was there but at 63, he will probably be thinking about retirement in 12 or 15 years.

[Blood of Tyrants]

They just gave the entire GOP the finger by voting to undermine the constitutional option. If the GOP dares to endorse them, I will leave the party.

[Howlin]

I love it because you still pinged her. Maybe....

[Doctor Raoul]

She was one of a kind.