Obama’s Next Supreme Court Pick: Dream Teamer or Confirmable?

Mother Jones

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With the unexpected death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, President Barack Obama now has a series of choices to make about how to fill the empty seat on the bench, as he faces unprecedented Senate opposition to naming a replacement in an election year. He could pick a centrist nominee who would be easily confirmable by a GOP-controlled Senate in an ordinary year—though this year is hardly shaping up as ordinary. He could shoot for the moon and select a liberal dream candidate. This person might well become a high-profile sacrificial lamb whose rejection could rally the Democratic base for the coming presidential election. Or Obama could defy partisan lines and go with a nominee he might consider a reasonable conservative, magnanimously opting to keep the court functioning rather than deadlocked with eight members. The White House has not floated any trial balloons, but the legal community can’t help but wildly speculate about whom Obama might pick. Based on some of that speculation, here’s a list of possible candidates for all of those scenarios.

The Centrists:

Padmanabhan Srikanth Srinivasan: The 48-year-old Indian immigrant is at the top of everyone’s list as a likely Scalia replacement, if for no other reason than that the Senate confirmed him unanimously in 2013 to a seat on the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit. Senate Republicans would be hard-pressed to explain why a guy who was qualified for the federal judiciary three years ago shouldn’t be confirmed as a Supreme Court justice. Srinivasan served as the principal deputy solicitor general before becoming a judge, and he has argued more than two dozen cases before the Supreme Court. As a private attorney, he often represented business interests. He graduated from Stanford Law School, which would add some West Coast sensibility to the court. He also happened to clerk for Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, a Republican appointee, and for federal appeals court Judge Harvie Wilkinson III, a well-regarded, thoughtful conservative. That Wilkinson clerkship may help explain Srinivasan’s previous support among Republicans in the Senate.