Democrats Divide on Voice of Possible Top-Court Pick

The Wall Street Journal
February 8, 2010
By Jess Bravin

WASHINGTON—Democrats gearing up for a possible Supreme Court vacancy are divided over whether President Barack Obama should appoint a prominent liberal voice while their party still commands a large Senate majority, or go with someone less likely to stoke Republican opposition.

<snip>

"Sotomayor fits further into the problem of lacking any powerful liberal voice," said University of Chicago law professor Geoffrey Stone, a friend and former faculty colleague of Mr. Obama. Like many liberal academics, Prof. Stone considers Justices Stevens, Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer as relative moderates who don't articulate a robust philosophical alternative to the court's aggressive conservatives, Justice Scalia, Chief Justice John Roberts, and Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito.

Without trailblazing liberals like the late Justices William Brennan and Thurgood Marshall on the bench, "the court is getting this completely skewed internal debate about how to think about constitutional law," Prof. Stone said. That's bad for the court and bad for the nation."

Other allies of the president say picking a "Scalia of the left" would be a mistake. A candidate with a sharp liberal record "is such an attractive target for a fight, it could screw up the whole summer," tying up the Senate and further handicapping the Democrats' agenda, said a Democrat familiar with the White House's thinking on judicial nominees.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703894304...