Posted on 02/16/2010 2:11:30 PM PST by Free ThinkerNY
If two U.S. Supreme Court vacancies materialize this spring, they may have the same impact on the nation's capital that two heavy snowfalls have had this month: gridlock, paralysis and frayed tempers.
Stories raising the possibility that justices John Paul Stevens and Ruth Bader Ginsburg may leave at roughly the same time have suddenly become part of the Washington conversation, already fueling nightmare scenarios of dragged-out battles between a weakened President Barack Obama and a fiercely contentious Senate over possible replacements.
"Republicans are out for blood, and Democrats are out for a fight," said Steve Wermiel, professor at American University Washington College of Law. "We're close to a peak of partisan wrangling in Washington."
Speculation about potential nominees has already begun, with Solicitor General Elena Kagan and Judge Merrick Garland of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit winning the most mentions at this early stage. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is also the subject of growing speculation as a possible nominee.
That said, many Court-watchers still don't believe two concurrent vacancies are likely.
"There's a very express consensus within the Court that two vacancies not occur simultaneously, barring a medical tragedy," said David Garrow, a high court scholar and senior research fellow at the University of Cambridge. "And there's no new evidence that Justice Ginsburg is at all considering departing."
WHO WILL GO?
The latest guessing game began when ABC News reported on Feb. 4 that the White House was preparing for the possibility of two vacancies by refreshing and researching its list of potential candidates. The Wall Street Journal also quoted unnamed officials asserting that Ginsburg's apparently successful battle against pancreatic cancer last year nonetheless has "made preparations for her retirement prudent."
(Excerpt) Read more at law.com ...
Un-checked activism via the USSC cannot be undone. Interpretation of the "living document" they will call the U.S. Constitution can then only be done by Amendment.
We almost had Harriet Miers. But I think that William Rehnquist was the last justice who wasn't a judge first.
Can’t stop her? How did demoncrats stop Judge Bork? I would bring up all the sh*t starting with Arkansas. Let me count the ways.
1.) Whitewater.
2.) Troopergate.
3.) Bimbo eruptions.
4.) Cattlegate.
5.) John Huang.
6.) Original Healthcare debacle.
7.) Travel Office firing.
8.) Snipergate
9.) etc.etc.
Don’t SCJ’s need bench time. How many have we had that went from lawyer to a member of the SC?
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Your paperboy could become the next SCJ, no experience necessary.
The commie traitor Stevens should have been dragged off the bench back in 1980 and hanged for treason. The word “justice” doesn’t exist in a single bone of his Marxist body.
How quickly people forget. Her closets are filled with bones.
You got that right. I loathe that woman. Remember she did her college thesis on Saul Alinksy. Saul was Obama’s oracle also.
Don’t SCJ’s need bench time. How many have we had that went from lawyer to a member of the SC?
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Your paperboy could become the next SCJ, no experience necessary.
You mean I could I could sit on the bench at a SCJ. :)
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