With the retirement of Associate Justice John Paul Stevens from the United States Supreme Court, President Obama will make his second nomination to the nation’s highest court. His previous choice, Sonia Sotomayor, was a center left mainstream judge. After a bit of grumbling and some delays, her nomination resulted in bipartisan confirmation.
This time, the political environment is different. First it’s an election year. Second, Obama’s popularity has waned since the Sotomayor nomination. The President has two options. He can either pick another “bronze medal” center left mainstream judge with relatively little controversy in his/her background or he can “go for the gold” and nominate a clearly left wing and contoversial figure for the position.
Obama instinctively wants to be a coalition builder and is inclined to the former, a safer pick. But this may be his last chance to appoint a game changing liberal to the high court. It is likely that he will never again have 59 Democrats in the Senate to back his choice. And, being an election year, the Republicans will try to paint his nominee as being far left no matter whom he chooses.
The Republicans have nothing to lose by going after the nominee and making him/her an election issue. As a result, Obama likewise has nothing to lose by nominating someone from the left of the Democratic Party.
The nomination may tell us a great deal about this President. If he truly wants to take the country left, this is a time when he can make that direction clear, with his best remaining opportunity and with the Republicans likely to claim “lefty” no matter who he picks. If he is truly center left, we should see another choice like Sotomayor. Or he could play it safe and nominate a moderate, well liked, Democratic Senator for the post.
Let the speculation begin.
Cross posted at Elijah’s Sweete Spot where COMMENTS/DISCUSSION are Disqus(tm) enabled.
Contributor, aka tidbits. Retired attorney in complex litigation, death penalty defense and constitutional law. Former Nat’l Board Chair: Alzheimer’s Association. Served on multiple political campaigns, including two for U.S. Senator Mark O. Hatfield (R-OR). Contributing author to three legal books and multiple legal publications.