Supreme Legal Minds!

I hope that Christina Bellantoni at TPM is right and President Obama is considering even judges that lean to the left to replace Justice Stevens. Her story claims that the White House knows that whoever they pick, the Repugs will fight it as if it’s the end of the freakin world….no matter who it is. So why not pick someone who will help swing the pendulum back to the left? From her article….

“It doesn’t matter who he chooses, there is going to be a big ‘ol fight over it. So he doesn’t have to get sidetracked by those sorts of concerns,” the official told me. The GOP has attempted to obstruct “anything of consequence” put forth by the Obama administration since he took office, the official said. “The president is making this decision with a pretty clear view that whoever he chooses is going to provoke a strong reaction on the right,” the official added.

I hope that this thinking continues within the White House on other issues too. Glenn Greenwald gives a passionate pitch for Diane Wood and I have to admit, I like how she thinks. She was courageous and spoke out about civil liberties in 2003 when the Bush administration was just beginning it’s assault on our long standing American values and LAWS. This is from Glenn’s piece…

But the starting point for seeing why Wood is such a superior alternative — what first convinced me — is the University of Chicago Law Review article she wrote in early 2003, entitled The Rule of Law in Times of Stress.  This courageous analysis was designed to warn the nation about the profound threats posed to the rule of law and the Constitution by excesses in the War on Terrorism, but also more broadly to set forth her general view of the proper role of the Supreme Court when rights are being assaulted and individuals from marginalized groups are being mistreated.  By itself, this article says more than I ever could about why she is really the ideal replacement for Justice Stevens, using every standard which progressives have always claimed to embrace regarding their views of the Court.

I recommend you go read Glenn’s piece, it’s quite long but very good. Here is a piece of Diane Woods writing, lifted from Glenn’s piece.

Regardless of who he picks, it will be a great day in America when it happens.

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