Legal Commentary

George W. Bush on the Miers and Alito Nominations

By Orin Kerr

Over at her Crossroads blog, Jan Crawford reports on what George W. Bush?s memoir of his presidency says about his Supreme Court selection process. ?After he tapped Roberts for chief justice when William Rehnquist died,? Crawford explains, ?he only considered women candidates to replace O?Connor? because Bush ?didn?t like the idea of the Supreme Court having only one woman.? There were ?frustrating roadblocks? for most of the women candidates, Crawford reports. It then came down to Priscilla Owen (of the Fifth Circuit) and White House Counsel Harriett Miers: ?But [Bush] concluded Owen, who was filibustered when he nominated her to the appeals court, would have trouble getting confirmed. With some Democrats suggesting Miers, Mr. Bush picked her instead[.]? When the Miers nomination failed, Bush picked Alito ?because he could not find any women who were as qualified.?

Thanks to How Appealing for the link.

Full post as published by The Volokh Conspiracy on November 10, 2010 (boomark / email).