Litigation

Obama Advances Supreme Court Interviews

By Peter Hardin

President Obama has held interviews with two more potential Supreme Court candidates, appeals judge Merrick Garland and Solicitor General Elena Kagan. Earlier reports said Obama interviewed appeals judge Sidney Thomas of Montana late last week.

Judge Garland sits on the federal appeals court in the District of Columbia and was interviewed earlier in April, according to a Wall Street Journal article. The Kagan interview occurred Friday, Fox News reported.

As Obama has advanced his search for a nominee to replace Justice John Paul Stevens, a number of pundits and reporters have focused on homogeneity on the court.

A New York Times article was entitled, “Rare Breed Now: A Justice Who Wasn’t a Judge.”

An Associated Press article looked instead at geography; it was headlined, “Supreme Court leans heavily on Boston-Washington axis; will Obama pick go outside I-95?”

Still another focus, religion, was the topic of a CNN report: “A Supreme Court without Protestants?”

To learn more about the nomination process, politics, and Obama?s criteria, check out other Gavel Grab posts or visit Justice at Stake?s ?Replacing Justice Stevens? page.

Full post as published by The Gavel on May 03, 2010 (boomark / email).