Miscellaneous

Court-O-Bama

By Anne Skove, Esq.

And the nominees are...

Nope, Grammys are over. We're talking about the McClobbees!

It's too early to tell who will be nominated or elected, so it's insanely early to tell who that person would nominate for the SCOTUS. But that series of long-shots doesn't stop some interesting speculation from all sides.

Slate takes Obama's status as a former* law professor into account.
See Obama the Lawyer President, Emily Bazelon, Slate (February 7, 2008).

But Bazelon makes a bit much of that fact. Clinton the First was a con law professor, too; he didn't exactly blaze legal trails. And why make much of the fact that Obama keeps his law professor friends close? Law professors are some of the best thinkers on Earth, and great fun at parties to boot. Obama's background is in academia. If he were in business, one would expect him to have lunch with former business peeps now and again.

What's intriguing is that Chicago loves him. Chicago -- dark and dreary home of "there's nothing to do!" freezing, overworked, uber-wonky brain-butcher to the world. Students loved him! And check out Cass Sunstein's 2006 love letter to Obama's then-new book.

Bazelon discusses Obama's penchant for consulting with Cass and others. We wonder whether Obama would nominate Sunstein to the country's court of last resort? Make him attorney general (he used to work at the DOJ)? Keep him as an invisible hand? Call him whenever society needs dissent?

Meanwhile, Lithwick the Estimable considers possible pressure from the far right, should McCain be the next nominator-in-chief. See Alito Is Neato, Dahlia Lithwick, Slate (February 7, 2008). (Bonus points to DL for rhyming something with Alito. Our favorite is "burrito!")

Powerline blogs in with the crassly-titled Will the Federalist Society Succeed Where the North Vietnamese Failed? (February 9, 2008). They call Litwick's ideas "characteristically overwrought," and claims she is "obsessed" with the Federalist Society. (Were that true, she'd be spending a heck of a lot more time over the mountain at W&L.) They toss Lindsey Graham's name into the hat.

Court-o-rama would like to remind folks that Justice Stevens was a Ford appointee. Put *that* in the hat and smoke it.

*Obama's colleagues at the University of Chicago would take him back in a second. They remain hopeful; the law school website still lists him as a senior lecturer, "on leave of absence."

Full post as published by court-o-rama.org on February 11, 2008 (boomark / email).