Posted on 09/22/2005 1:13:39 PM PDT by Crackingham
Texan Priscilla Owen, who was the focal point of a bitter, four-year nomination battle for a federal appeals court, is emerging as a candidate for the U.S. Supreme Court as President Bush seeks a replacement for retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.
Owen, who sits on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, is among at least a half-dozen Texans believed to be under consideration for the impending vacancy. Other candidates from the state are U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and several of Owen's 5th Circuit colleagues.
.......
Although Owen has been on the appeals court less than four months, the former Texas Supreme Court justice is believed to be high on the list of potential candidates for O'Connor's seat, according to lawmakers, legal experts and judicial advocacy groups monitoring the search for a nominee.
Speculation began intensifying late last week after Washington columnist Robert Novak described Owen, a former corporate lawyer from Houston, as the front-runner and reported that she had met privately with Bush this month. The White House has not confirmed the meeting, and Owen has declined requests for interviews.
Texas Republican Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn said that they would welcome Owen's nomination to the high court but that they have no indication whether Bush is moving toward naming her. Senate Democrats and leaders of a coalition who fought to block her nomination to the 5th Circuit vowed to replay the battle if she becomes Bush's nominee.
Owen was nominated to the 5th Circuit in 2001 but confirmation did not come until May, when the Senate voted 55-43 after a compromise negotiated by a bipartisan group of senators. Opponents portrayed Owen as a conservative extremist while supporters defended her as an outstanding jurist who had been endorsed by 15 former presidents of the State Bar.
"I know they're [the White House] pretty interested in her. There's no question about that," said Nan Aron, president of the liberal Alliance for Justice, which opposed Owen's nomination to the 5th Circuit. Aron, maintaining that Bush should replace the moderate O'Connor with someone of a similar judicial temperament, said nominating Owen to the post would be "a slap in the face."
No one predicted Roberts. No reason to think the press will get it right this time.
Sounds like a great candidate to me.
Why? Shouldn't winning an election count for something?
I'd like this, but as the next poster notes, Roberts came out of nowhere. I don't think anyone knows what this pres. will do.
Mr. President, nominate a strict constructionist and let the bloodshed commence! The socialists will filibuster, the repubs will nuke 'em and you will have your nominee.
I personally think everyone's overlooking Edith Jones, myself.
I'd chip in an extra donation to the national committee if Bush would nominate a "slap in the face" nominee.
I still want Janice Rodgers Brown!
Sounds like she's one that even Ann Coulter would have to agree with.
Amen! Let the chips fall where they may!
Bush didn't win the election. He stole it. /Moonbat mode
Actually, Roberts didn't really come out of no where. He and Littig were talked about fairly extensively before hand. But all of us were thinking that Bush would nominate a true blue conservative judge. He didn't.
I think you may be right about Jones. She has been called the "female-scalia" but doesn't have the burden of being attacked like Owen or Brown by Lib's, that means that the White House could frame the debate and her personality early and the left would have to play catch up.
D Michale Luttig
Dims will filibuster and get nuked. We will have out man.
Save Owens for when someone drops a house on Ginzberg.
"I'd chip in an extra donation to the national committee if Bush would nominate a "slap in the face" nominee"
Me too! The liberals are going to scream, protest, slander, make outrageous demands, riot, speak contemptuously, and make flat-out lies, no matter who President Bush nominates. Let's really give them someone to screech about. After the totally partisan assault the libs/media led against Bush during hurricane Katrina they deserve to face a real battle. Liberals don't have the moral high-ground. They aren't compassionate. They legislate laws that the PEOPLE continuously vote against. There's absolutely no reason to be civil at this point.
Then the dims can appeal the nomination to, uhh, to the, well the Supreme Court! Thats who!
Sounds like the same thing that happened with Roberts. There was a name of a controversial nominee floated. The libs locked and loaded their fax machines with attack press releases, and then the Prez caught them flatfooted by naming the unexpected Roberts.
ME TOO !!!!!!!!!
But all of us were thinking that Bush would nominate a true blue conservative judge. He didn't.
I don't agree with this. I watched the Roberts hearings and to me he seems like exactly what conservatives have been talking about for 40 years. A person who reads the law and tries to figure out what was meant when it was written. I just can't see him blowing in the wind like Souter or O'Connor.
Guaranteed, he's going to be in the majority of some decisions we might not like. But so was Rehhquist (Miranda) and Scalia (flag burning). He knows the Constitution preserves Liberty and I think he will struggle to preserve the Constitution. A true conservative.
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