This article has been updated since its original publication.
Legal pundits and close followers of the Supreme Court have begun to speculate over whom President Barack Obama will nominate in the wake of Justice Antonin Scalia’s death. Scalia was found dead Saturday at a Texas ranch and resort.
After paying tribute to Scalia’s life, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Facebook that the next president should be responsible for appointing a justice. President Obama, however, announced that he would appoint Scalia’s successor.
“I plan to fulfill my constitutional responsibilities to nominate a successor in due time,” Obama said Saturday. “There will be plenty of time for me to do so and for the Senate to fulfill its responsibility to give that person a fair hearing and a timely vote. These are responsibilities that I take seriously, as should everyone. They’re bigger than any one party. They are about our democracy.”
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But whom will the president choose? Dahlia Lithwick, senior reporter for Slate, noted on MSNBC this morning that Obama has looked for specific qualities in previous nominations. With Justice Sonia Sotomayor, he wanted empathy; with Justice Elena Kagan, he was looking for a uniter, Lithwick said. “He doesn’t tend to pick bomb-throwers,” Lithwick says.
Amid speculation that has asserted New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar and California Attorney General Kamala Harris, among many other prominent legal minds, into the mix, here are a few of the names that have floated to the top.
Sri Srinivasan
One commonly cited prospect for Scalia’s replacement is Sri Srinivasan, 48, whom many legal analysts named as a top choice. Jeffrey Toobin, a staff writer for The New Yorker, previously profiled Srinivasan, calling him “the Supreme Court nominee-in-waiting.”
“If Srinivasan runs the confirmation gauntlet now, it will be difficult for Republicans to argue that he’s unconfirmable just months later,” Toobin wrote in 2013. “His credentials would surely appeal to Obama, who has a fondness for technocrats, and his thin paper trail would make him difficult to attack. Which is why it looks very much like this hearing isn’t just a test for Srinivasan—it’s a dress rehearsal.”
On Saturday, Toobin recalled Srinivasan as one to watch, while Bloomberg’s Supreme Court reporter, Greg Stohr, echoed this idea on MSNBC Sunday morning.
Obama nominated Srinivasan for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and he was confirmed by the Senate in 2013 by a 97-0 vote. The judge previously served as the principal deputy solicitor general of the United States, argued more than 20 cases in front of the Supreme Court and was a lecturer for Harvard Law School. He also clerked for former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. If nominated and confirmed, Srinivasan would be the first Asian-American on the Court.
Paul Watford
SCOTUSblog’s Tom Goldstein had a different prediction, opining that Paul Watford “is the most likely nominee.”
Watford was appointed by Obama to the Ninth Circuit and confirmed by the Senate in 2012.
“Nine Republicans voted in favor of his nomination. That gives the Administration considerable ammunition to argue publicly that Republicans, by refusing to process the nomination, are blocking someone who is recognized to be qualified,” Goldstein wrote. “There is some imperative to move quickly, because each passing week strengthens the intuitive appeal of the Republican argument that it is too close to the election to confirm the nominee.”
Watford previously clerked for Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and graduated from the UCLA School of Law. If Watford is nominated and confirmed, he would be the third African-American justice to serve on the Court. It would be the first time two African-American justices served at the same time.
Patricia Millett
Patricia Millett, a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, was also named by several sources, including The New York Times, Politico and MSNBC’s panel this morning, as a potential nominee. It took almost seven months for her to be confirmed following a Senate debate over the use of filibuster for nominations below the Supreme Court level.








