The Bush Court

[Frank Cross]

Let's hear it for Milquetoast and Geritol!  I've thought about Rick
Duncan's theory and it could come to pass.  I don't think that the Senate
is going to turn down any Latino/a nominees.  But the ones that look most
qualified and prominent are not that conservative.  And I don't think that
the Senate would necessarily defer to another woman nominee -- for example,
I don't see Edith Jones getting through.  Plus, I don't think that W, in
his heart of hearts, is a real populist conservative type.  The Texas
Supreme Court majority has been pretty liberal in interpreting the bypass
provisions of the abortion parental notification law.  W is a traditional
big business Republican.  He talks up Scalia and Thomas to appeal to the
base, but I bet his choices look more like Kennedy.


'At 09:26 AM 11/29/2000 -0800, you wrote:
>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
>
>
>=====
>Rick Duncan (conlawprof at yahoo.com)
>
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Frank Cross
Herbert D. Kelleher Centennial Professor of Business Law
CBA 5.202
University of Texas at Austin
Austin, TX 78712