Goldstein on Second-Term Supreme Court Nominees

Tom Goldstein had a great post earlier this week about potential Supreme Court nominees under a second-term President Obama should he win reelection in November.  Goldstein anticipates Justice Ginsberg and possibly Justice Breyer will retire around 2015, leaving President Obama with his third and (possibly) fourth appointment.  Presidents Reagan and Nixon both had four Justices confirmed during their Presidencies.  Since then, no President has had even three (Carter 0; GHW Bush 2; Clinton 2; GW Bush 2).

There are a lot of factors that go into choosing a nominee.  Goldstein suggests he believes President Obama will rely on the following:

In sum, here are the criteria I think the President will be using.  The person must of course be highly qualified intellectually.  Beyond that, the candidate must be (a) female, (b) a Democrat, (c) reasonably well known to the President’s advisors, (d) between the age of forty-two and fifty-two, (e) a lawyer (so no Susan Rice), (f) have substantial interest and experience in the kinds of issues that the Supreme Court decides (so noSamantha Power), and (g) have sufficient credentials.  Those credentials would be (i) a federal appellate judgeship, (ii) federal or statewide electoral office, or (iii) a senior federal executive position.  There also is a substantial preference that the nominee be African American or Asian American.

I'd encourage you to read the entire article and see Goldstein's list of potential nominees, but to skip to the end, Goldstein believes Obama's ideal nominee based on those factors is the current Attorney General of California, Kamala Harris.