President Obama thoroughly scoured files of Supreme Court nominee shortlisters in 2009, and is getting his reading in now as he considers contenders for the latest vacancy.
Staff work is going on behind the scenes as chief counsel Bob Bauer and his team prepared thick documents with research on potential nominees. An official told me that staff is reaching out to “a broad cross-section” outside groups such as the American Constitution Society and other judicial advocacy organizations as a sort of listening tour. Obama also huddled with the top judiciary panel members and Senate leaders this week before starting a phone call blitz to Democrats and Republicans on the committee.
Aides say advocacy group lobbying won’t influence Obama, and that he wants to drill down into his research files on his own. He likes to do such reading late at night in his White House study. He’s likely to bring some material on his nominees with him to read this weekend as he vacations with his family in the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina.
Obama also has chatted with prospective candidates, but remains “very early” in the process even though he’s on track to name his pick by the end of May.
Aides insist there is no secret plan to courier potential nominees to the Obama family vacation spot this weekend, though reporters are skeptical since it’s easier to meet someone away from Washington in a similar fashion to how Obama met with vice presidential candidates.
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters today that Bauer’s team “continues to work up information” on a host of candidates. The prospects confirmed on background by the White House are:
⢠Solicitor General Elena Kagan, dean of Harvard Law School before joining the administration
⢠D.C. Circuit Appeals Court Judge Merrick Garland, who oversaw the prosecution of Timothy McVeigh for the Oklahoma City bombing
⢠Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Judge Sidney Thomas
⢠Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Diane Wood
⢠Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, the former Arizona governor
⢠Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D-MI)
⢠Leah Ward Sears, formerly chief justice of the Georgia Supreme Court
⢠Harvard Law School dean Martha Minowâª
⢠Seventh Circuit Court of of Appeals Judge Ann Claire Williams
The White House won’t say if Obama is narrowing down his long list or lengthening a short list, but we can look at the clues.
Last year, Sonia Sotomayor’s name already was on Obama’s long list of candidates which he eventually whittled down to four who he met with in person. (Kagan, Wood, Napolitano and Sotomayor) To craft the list, the White House team initially reviewed “voluminous” substantial legal writings by more than 40 possible candidates and had “direct contact” with nine contenders, advisers said then.
Obama spent one hour with each of the four finalists one week before announcing Sotomayor had his blessing, and administration officials told me and others last year that he was comfortable with any of the four becoming justice.
Aides seem confident they’ll be able to win over enough senators for a confirmation before the next court session begins this fall. But as we’ve been reporting, the political landscape is dramatically different for Obama, bruised after an ugly yearlong domestic policy battle over health care and down one Democratic senator.
“That seems like six years ago,” Gibbs admitted today.
