The Bush Court

[Rick Duncan]

President-elect Bush will likely have 2 or 3
opportunities to appoint Justices to the Supreme
Court. Some on this list have suggested that Bush
nominees will be confirmable only if they are moderate
(a "moderate" being defined as someone who takes
*liberal* positions on all important issues like
abortion, affirmative action, gay rights, etc., while
being allowed to take conservative positions on a few
less important issues) and members of the AARP.

I think President Bush might well be able to steal a
page from Daddy Bush's nomination of Justice Thomas by
nominating pro-life, pro-family Justices who are
almost certain to be confirmed. Suppose, for example,
Justice Stevens decides to retire to a nursing home
and President Bush nominates, say, a conservative
Hispanic to replace him. A recent article in the legal
times suggests that the Hispanic community believes
their turn has come for a seat on the Court. Would
Senate Democrats dare risk offending the Hispanic
community by borking a well-qualified conservative
Hispanic nominee?

Next, suppose Justice O'Connor resigns and W nominates
a highly-qualified conservative woman to replace her.
There are many pro-life conservative woman with the
qualifications to serve on the Court. Again, how easy
would it be for Senate Democrats to savage and bork
her? (Daddy Bush's biggest mistake was to bypass Edith
Jones in favor of Souter--W should follow Daddy's
example in the Clarence Thomas nomination and learn
from Daddy's mistake in the Souter nomination).

I don't know if it is likely that W will go the way I
have suggested, but it sure beats ending up with
Justice Milquetoast and Justice Geritol. No?

--Rick Duncan


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Rick Duncan (conlawprof at yahoo.com)

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