Wisconsin native Paul Clement tops the list every time. There are a handful of very smart conservatives who are on the short list.
1) Kinda getting ahead of ourselves here. He’s not even officially the nominee and now he’s making SCOTUS appointments?
2) It’s doubtful the other two liberal justices are retiring soon and almost certainly won’t while there is a Republican in the White House, even a RINO, knowing how close they are now to an ideological split.
3) None of the conservative justices are particularly old or in ill health. I don’t see any of them dying or stepping down before 2017.
4) Whenever Justice Kennedy decides to step down, all hell will break loose. I pity whoever the president is at that time (but pray it is a conservative) because the libs will DEMAND a liberal be put in his place.
I’m no Romney lover but Freepers who threaten to stay home because there’s no difference between Romney and Obama would do well to remember that a Romney presidency gives us potential SCotUS justices like Kavanaugh and Clement while Obama will give us more Kagans and Sotomeyers.
If Clement is nominated, the libs and media will say he shouldn’t serve since he argued the Obamacare case. They will claim that shows him as too partisan. Seriously - they will make that argument with a straight face.
Sandy O'Connor was 76, and Fun Boy Souter 67 when he moved to Fire Island. However, the loathsome J.P. Stevens overstayed his welcome until he was 90.
Excellent list.
From the Romney website:
The Chairpersons of the Advisory Committee – Judge Robert Bork, Professor Mary Ann Glendon, and Richard Wiley. . . .
Members Of Mitt Romney’s Justice Advisory Committee:
•Alex Acosta •William Allen •Alex Azar •H. Christopher Bartolomucci •Lizette Benedi Herraiz •Bradford A. Berenson •Elliot S. Berke •Brant Bishop •Michelle Boardman •J. Caleb Boggs III •Robert Bork •Steven Bradbury •Lee A. Casey •Michael Chertoff •Jeffrey Clark •Gus Coldebella •Roderick De Arment •George Dent •Michael R. Dimino •Thomas Dupree •Charles Eskridge •Allen Ferrell •Timothy Flanigan •Sergio J. Galvis •Deborah A. Garza •Tom Gede •Mary Ann Glendon •Alan Gura •Jimmy Gurulé •Catherine Hanaway •Jennifer Hardy •W. Thomas Haynes •Jay Jorgensen •Jay Kanzler •Roy Katzovicz •Richard Klingler •Christopher Landau •Stephen Larson •Katie Lev •Wendy Long •Fred Lowell •Raymond B. Ludwiszewski •Maureen Mahoney •Roman Martinez •Gary McDowell •Brent McIntosh •Grant S. Nelson •Mark Nielsen •Howard C. Nielson, Jr. •Robert O’Brien •Kevin O’Connor •John O’Quinn •Elizabeth Papez •Matthew Papez •Nels Peterson •Thomas Phillips •Stephen Presser •David Rivkin, Jr. •Jeffrey Rosen •Gene Schaerr •Jay Stephens •John Sullivan •Richard Wiley
Please get Ginsburg an iron lung and pay for a 24/7 doctor, just to be sure that she makes it until next January 21.
Romney's picked a solid-gold co-chair in Glendon, who had the character to tell Notre Dame where to stick its Laetare Medal if it didn't disinvite Pres. Pro-Abort as commencement speaker.
He will try to appoint Mormons.
Romney is happily locked into his opposition to same-sex marriage——which rocketed his numbers into the stratosphere (when Ohaha stupidly supported it).
So Romney’s USSC nominees MUST reflect that stance.
Fortunately for us, that usually means the nominee is pro-life, as well.
Romney Rewards one of the State's Leading Anti-Marriage Attorneys by Making him a Judge
Romney told the U.S. Senate on June 22, 2004, that the "real threat to the States is not the
constitutional amendment process, in which the states participate,
but activist judges who disregard the law and redefine marriage . . ."
Romney sounds tough but yet he had no qualms advancing the legal career of one
of the leading anti-marriage attorneys. He nominated Stephen Abany to a District Court.
Abany has been a key player in the Massachusetts Lesbian and Gay Bar Association which,
in its own words, is "dedicated to ensuring that the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court decision
on marriage equality is upheld, and that any anti-gay amendment or legislation is defeated."
- U.S. Senate testimony by Gov. Mitt Romney, 6/22/2004 P>
"Romney announces he won't fill judicial vacancies before term ends
Despite his rhetoric about judicial activism, Romney announced that
he won't fill all the remaining vacancies during his term - but instead
leave them for his liberal Democrat successor!
Governor Mitt Romney pledged yesterday not to make a flurry of lame-duck
judicial appointments in the final days of his administration . . . David Yas,
editor of Lawyers Weekly, said Romney is "bucking tradition" by resisting the urge to
fill all remaining judgeships. "It is a tradition for governors to use that power to appoint judges
aggressively in the waning moments of their administration," Yas said.
He added that Romney has been criticized for failing to make judicial appointments.
"The legal community has consistently criticized him for not filling open seats quickly enough
and being a little too painstaking in the process and being dismissive of the input of the
Judicial Nominating Commission," Yas said.
- Boston Globe 11/2/2006
“The Massachusetts Republican Party died last Tuesday.
The cause of death: failed leadership.
The party is survived by a few leftover legislators
and a handful of county officials and grassroots activists
who have been ignored for years.
Services will be public and a mass exodus of taxpayers will follow.
In lieu of flowers, send messages to Republican voters
warning them about a certain presidential candidate named Romney.”
- Boston Herald, 11/12/2006
"In 2006, while Romney was chairman of the National Republican
Governors Association - a group dedicated to electing more
Republican governors - his own hand-picked Republican successor
as governor lost badly to the Democrat, despite the fact that Republicans
have held the governorship in Massachusetts since 1990. Romney largely
ignored the Massachusetts elections and spent most of the time
during the campaign out of state building his presidential campaign.
He came back and publicly campaigned for the Republican candidate
the day before the general election!
“Locally, this is a rebuke to Mitt Romney and checking out within six months
after being elected and having accomplished almost nothing,”
[Jim] Rappaport [former chairman of the state Republican Party]."
- Boston Globe, 11/8/2006
Oh noes! He might actually choose conservative judges. What will that do to the ‘he’s worse than Obama’ narrative raging in conservative internet discussions?
This is getting way ahead of yourself.
USSC is ripe for some replacements, and I’d rather have Romney’s replacements than 0’s; but, I won’t be expecting any hardcore strict-constructionists from Romney, they’ll be like GHWB or Nixon/Ford selections.
RE: Mentioned as often as Clement is Judge Brett Kavanaugh of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
______________________
He was A protege of Judge Kenneth Starr.
Kavanaugh played a lead role in drafting the Starr report, which urged the impeachment of President Bill Clinton.
Kavanaugh also led the investigation into the suicide of Clinton aide Vincent Foster. After the 2000 U.S. Presidential election, in which Kavanaugh worked for the George W. Bush campaign in the Florida recount, Kavanaugh joined Bush’s staff, where he led the Administration’s effort to identify and confirm conservative judicial nominees.
Kavanaugh himself was nominated to the D.C. Appeals Court by Bush in 2003. His confirmation hearings were contentious and stalled for three years over charges of partisanship.
Kavanaugh was ultimately confirmed in May 2006 after a series of negotiations between Democratic and Republican Senators.
RE: A third possibility, Judge Diane Sykes, is often mentioned as a likely Romney nominee if the next person to leave the Supreme Court is Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the court’s senior woman justice
_______________________
The following things I know of Diane Sykes...
Sykes was married to conservative radio talk show host Charlie Sykes of WTMJ in Milwaukee, but they are now divorced. Sykes has two children from that marriage.
Sykes is a member of the Federalist Society.
Mitt would pick Senator Hatch, no matter what. A RINO not picking other RINOS for the SCOTUS? Good Luck.
It is absolutely pathetic that we now have permanent "diversity" seats on the Supreme Court.
Either Obama or Romney will assure that the SC remains a moral and constitutional wasteland.
We’re never going to get out courts back until we put the legislative branch into the hands of legislators who will impeach any judge speedily who transgresses his own legitimate powers or the Constitution.