US Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano was evasive on Sunday about whether she coveted an appointment to the Supreme Court, as Republicans and Democrats sparred over the next justice.
“I’ve got my hands full with the [H1N1] flu right now, and I’m going to stick with that [answer],” the former governor and attorney-general of Arizona told Fox News on Sunday.
Napolitano has been floated as a possible name for US President Barack Obama to appoint to the highest US court after liberal-leaning Justice David Souter announced on Friday that he would retire next month.
Supreme Court Justices are named by the president and appointed for life, effectively impacting US jurisprudence for years, and Souter’s announcement stirred a flurry of speculation over his eventual replacement.
Pressed on whether she would accept the job if asked by Obama, Napolitano said: “Listen, I think the president has many, many excellent choices before him and that’s his choice to make.”
Obama said he aimed to have a successor to Souter by the time the court began anew in October:
“Someone with a sharp and independent mind and a record of excellence and integrity,” Obama said.
The former constitutional law professor is said to prefer a woman for the job. His spokesman Robert Gibbs said Obama was seeking “diversity of experience” in his nominee.
Three other women are in the media frame — Solicitor General Elena Kagan plus Sonia Sotomayor and Diane Wood, who are both appeals court judges.
Senator Arlen Specter, whose defection from the Republicans to the Democrats last week could considerably ease the passage of Obama’s nominee, said the president should look beyond judges’ chambers for his pick.
“We need more people to express a woman’s point of view or a minority point of view, Hispanic or African-American,” he said on CBS.
Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Patrick Leahy predicted a relatively quick confirmation process.
The Republicans need to find a replacement for Specter, who was their most senior member on Leahy’s Judiciary Committee tasked with hearings on nominees to the federal bench.
Republican Senator John Ensign railed against left-leaning “activist judges.”
“We need to get back to what the Supreme Court is supposed to be about, and that is interpreting our Constitution according to how our founders meant it and according to judicial precedent,” he said on Fox News on Sunday.
Senator Orrin Hatch, a former Republican chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said he was worried by Obama’s emphasis on finding a nominee who has empathy for ordinary people.
“We all know he’s going to pick a more liberal justice. Their side will make sure that it’s a pro-abortion justice ... The question is, are they qualified?” he told ABC.
“He also said that he’s going to select judges on the basis of their personal politics, their personal feelings, their personal preferences,” he said. “Those are all code words for an activist judge, who is going to be partisan.”
Leahy said the conservative-dominated court was already highly partisan and that Obama would pick someone who emphasized equality under the law.
“I’ve known President Obama long enough. He doesn’t need to use code words,” he said. “I think he wants to have somebody to treat people all the same, whether they’re Republicans, or Democrat, men, women, or whatever they may be.”
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