Since news of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, D.C. Circuit Court Judge Sri Srinivasan has drawn buzz as President Obama’s potential pick to replace Scalia.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has pledged to block any nominee until the next president is in office. But Obama said Saturday that he plans to fulfill his constitutional obligation, nominate a new justice. Republicans owe his choice “a fair hearing,” Obama said.
In that case, the choice may fall to the 48-year-old Srinivasan, who also served as deputy solicitor general for Obama.
“Keep your eye on DC Circuit Judge SRI SRINIVASAN as #scalia successor,” veteran court watcher Jeffrey Toobin of the New Yorker tweeted Saturday.
Srinivasan has served on the D.C. Circuit Court since 2013. That is about the same length John Roberts served there from 2003 to 2005 before being promoted to Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
Srinivasan has undergraduate, law, and business degrees from Stanford, and was originally born in India. He also teaches courses at Georgetown Law.
In private practice in 2010, Srinivasan represented jailed former Enron executive Jeffrey Skilling before the Supreme Court, and was successful in reducing his sentence by 10 years as a result, in a case regarding honest services fraud.
