Word: courting
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David Souter came to the supreme court as a man who was expected to make conservatives happy. To put it mildly, it didn't turn out that...
...July 1990, When George H.W. Bush nominated Souter to fill the seat of William J. Brennan, one of the most resolute members of the court's dwindling liberal minority, Bush thought, or at least hoped, that he would be getting a consistently right-leaning justice. What he got instead was a man who helped produce the 5-4 majority that upheld Roe v. Wade in 1992, who frequently ruled in favor of the rights of the accused in criminal cases, who supported gay rights and opposed school prayer. As a nominee Souter had the strong support of Bush's White...
...Souter had been a federal appeals court judge in Boston for just three months when Bush plucked him out of relative obscurity. Before that he had spent seven years on the New Hampshire state supreme court and 10 in the state attorney general's office. Neither job gave him much opportunity to set down his views on divisive issues like abortion rights, affirmative action and gun control. When Justice Thurgood Marshall, another of the court liberals, was asked what he knew about Souter, all he could say was: "Never heard...
...judicial candidate considered to be in the top tier of potential choices is Jennifer Granholm, 50, the current governor of Michigan. With a court full of Circuit judges, Granholm would make a mark as a politician, a throwback to the past when politicians, like Earl Warren or Hugo Black, were often chosen for the Supreme Court. And there could be political reasons for picking her; though he won it quite handily, Michigan is still a swing state, and Granholm would please unions, one of several groups Obama will have to contend with on his left. Labor and some civil rights...
...nomination to the Supreme Court is free of political fighting, but Republicans will have a hard time landing punches under the circumstances. Already unpopular, especially compared with Obama's soaring numbers, the GOP is in a weak position to oppose the President. Bush's two picks for the Supreme Court were well to the right, but were respected jurists and made it through largely unscathed; Sotomayor, Wood and Kagan would be expected to do the same, though Granholm, as a politician, might have a tougher time. Vetting will be thorough for any candidate, but the four front-runners have long...