President Obama is expected to name his replacement for the-late Justice Antonin Scalia as early as next week, just before the Senate leaves for its spring recess.
A source close to the process told the Washington Examiner that insiders expect a nominee Wednesday or Thursday. The short list of nominees has been winnowed to Chief Judge Merrick Garland of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia; Judge Sri Srinivasan of the same court; U.S. District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson who serves in Washington, D.C.; Judge Jane Kelly of the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis; and Judge Paul Watford of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.
“I’m not in a position to confirm that anybody is actually under consideration by the White House … but certainly the three individuals you named are people that the president was proud to have appointed to the federal bench,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest told a reporter who asked about Garland, Kelly, Srinivasan. Obama elevated all but Garland to the federal bench.
“I can tell you that the process is ongoing … but I don’t have any updates for you in terms of whether or not he has talked to any of the potential nominees,” Earnest added.
A search of the White House visitors’ log, which only shows guests through Feb. 26, does not reveal any presidential meetings with any of the candidates. However, any face-to-face meeting with Obama is unlikely to have happened that early, and the log doesn’t list whom he speaks with on the phone.
Obama named the first Latino to the Supreme Court with Justice Sonia Sotomayor. He could look to make history again and try to make Srinivasan the high court’s first Asian American or Pacific Islander justice.
No Asian American or Pacific Islander sat on an appellate court when Obama took office. Now four do. He also significantly increased their representation at the district court level, from eight to 21.
“I think he has a better than 50 percent chance” of being the candidate, the source said of Srinivasan.
The Senate confirmed Srinivasan unanimously May 23, 2013. He also had strong support from home-state senator, Jerry Moran, R-Kansas. Before his confirmation vote, Moran took to the floor extolling him.
“I wish to indicate to my colleagues how proud Kansans are of Sri and his success, his accomplishments, and I am pleased to support his nomination,” Moran said. “He is one of our nation’s leading appellate lawyers, and I believe he will serve our nation well on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.”
Another factor for Obama to weigh is which nominee would boost the Democratic presidential nominee’s chances in the general election, the source said.
Given that Republicans have vowed not to even hold hearings on Obama’s selection, putting forward veteran jurist Brown Jackson, who is African American, could boost the Democrats in November. Painting the GOP as obstructing elevating a black woman to the Supreme Court could drive African-American voters to the polls.
Advocacy groups representing AAPIs and African Americans are pushing hard for their respective candidate. But only Obama’s most inner-circle truly knows who has the advantage to tip the scale to become the nominee, knowledgeable sources stress.
