Posts Tagged ‘Supreme Court’

Al Franken has officially won the Minnesota U.S. Senate seat, prevailing over Norm Coleman in what has been one of the most expensive post-election legal battles for a Senate seat in U.S. history.

This gives Obama and the Democrats the 60 seats that, if they all hung together, would enable them to push through legislation without worrying about a filibuster.  However, with the national environment shifting toward Republicans, there are a number of Democrat Senators up for re-election in 2010 that for anything even slightly controversial, it will be tough for the Democrats to get to 60 votes on cloture.

Franken will be assigned to the Judiciary Committee, which will immediately throw him into the national spotlight with the Sotomayor hearings starting in a couple weeks.

While he is an unabashed liberal, watch for Franken to carve a unique position on a variety of issues.  He will be underestimated because of his comedian (although that implies he has ever been funny) background, but he is as smart as the typical Senator, so he will undoubtedly get a glowing profile write up in a major publication shortly after the Supreme Court confirmation hearings.

If I was advising Franken (and I’m among the last of those he’d ever call) I would suggest that he keep a fairly low profile and build a reputation of taking the job very seriously.  I would advise that he only speak on the floor when he can speak with genuine substance on an issue.  It will be easy to dismiss him if he does some of his screeching, so for his own political future, he’d be wise to try to be a work horse rather than a show horse.

We’ll see if he can keep his ego in check enough to do so.  I have my doubts.

You knew it would happen.  Despite Obama picking a Latina for the Supreme Court, there are some in the Latino community that just aren’t as happy as they wanted to be.  Why?  She’s the wrong kind of Latina – that is, she’s Puerto Rican, not Mexican.

Many Latinos are elated that Obama has nominated a Hispanic, and they relate to her story of success from humble beginnings.

But some would have preferred to see Obama nominate a Mexican-American considering that they make up 70 percent of the nation’s 47 million Latinos.

“The argument could be made for (a Mexican-American nominee),” said Raul Yzaguirre, former head of the National Council of La Raza, one of the nation’s largest Hispanic civil-rights organization. He is now presidential professor of community development and civil rights at Arizona State University. “I want unity, so I am more inclined to overlook those things and say, ‘Let’s work together.’ “

Though Puerto Ricans and Mexicans share a common language, Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens and are not considered immigrants like Mexicans, said Louis DeSipio, a political-science and Chicano/Latino studies professor at the University of California-Irvine.

As a result, Sotomayor could be less sensitive to immigration issues she may face as a Supreme Court justice than if she were Mexican-American, DeSipio said.

Luz Sarmina, president and CEO of Valle del Sol, a non-profit community-based Latino organization in Phoenix, said that she was thrilled with the choice of a Hispanic but admits that she would have liked to have seen Obama nominate a Mexican-American.

“I’m thrilled having a Latina, but I also think there are many Mexican-Americans well-qualified for that role. I don’t want to pit one group against the other, but I think I would have been thrilled to see a Mexican-American.”

In the name of unity, Yzaguirre will “overlook” the snub. DeSipio thinks Sotomayor will be “less sensitive to immigration issues” because she isn’t of Mexican descent.

Watch for this issue to get some more legs as Sotomayor’s record starts getting exposed.  What Mexican-Americans will learn is that she really isn’t much like them.

President Obama officially nominated Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court to fill the vacancy being created by Justice Souter’s retirement this summer.

This was not unexpected.  We knew it was going to be a woman, and the historical appeal of appointing the first Hispanic to the bench was too good to pass up.  And Sotomayor has a VERY compelling personal story - so compelling, it was probably impossible for Obama to NOT tap her.

Sotomayor is not getting a free pass from some on the left.  My guess is that her confirmation process is going to be a little rocky.  She has been a bit of a judicial activist, and that will be a strong line of questioning by Republicans and they will be less interested in her personal story.  One thing for sure, it’s going to be an interesting summer. 

DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano continues to have her named dropped as a potential nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court.

As you may recall, I have blogged on this possibility before (here and here) and still believe that it is her only course of action in staying in a profile position in public service since I don’t think she can ever be elected to the Senate from Arizona.

There is an interesting backlash on the left to the idea of Napolitano getting nominated to the Supreme Court. Left-of-center columnist Stephen Lemons, who writes for the left-wing, but highly entertaining Phoenix New Times, plucks Napolitano in his “Feathered B*****d” column.

“If Toobin knew anything about Nappy,” I wrote in February, ”he’d know she’s a gutless, careerist cipher, who left Arizona with a billion dollar deficit, a rock-bottom ranking in education, and a legacy of hate and intolerance spearheaded by nativist pols such as state Senator Russell Pearce and Sheriff Joe Arpaio, whom she never really took on during her six year tenure.”

To be sure, the right would go ape if she’s nominated. She incurred their wrath over that unclassified assessment on rightwing extremism, which DHS sent out to cops nationwide. And she’s been prone to flubs in its wake… nominating Nappy to be a Supreme would be like thowing the Limbaugh-ites a hunk of raw meat. So I’d be surprised if it happened.

On the other hand, Nappy has a talent for failing upward. Despite her do-nothing approach to local politics, Arizona Dems slavishly worshipped her, and the populace in general awarded her with reelection. Never mind that she shortly thereafter fled the state, leaving it in dire economic straits. That’s classic Nappy, putting her own self-interest above all others. And that’s why you can never totally count her out.

That’s a pretty fair and balanced assessment, even from a left-winged, feathered… uh, well, you know.

 It’s not every day that I can say that I’m way ahead of the curve in comparison to Arizona Republic columnist Ed Montini.  He has posted a column discussing the possibility of Janet Napolitano getting tapped for the Supreme Court to fill the vacancy left by Justice Souter.

I wrote about this issue back in early February.  Here’s what I said at the time:

I was one of the people that was shocked that Governor Napolitano took Department of Homeland Security.  I was shocked because I have always viewed her as a pretty political animal.  Anyone who has ambition for higher elective office is taking a huge risk in heading up DHS.  Politically, it’s almost a no-win situation.  Do your job perfectly, no fumbles on major disasters, no terrorist attacks, nobody notices.

But one slip-up can be career-ending.

That is, unless you have your sights on the Supreme Court.  Then it begins to make a lot more sense.  Take on the responsibility of the largest agency in the Federal government, do a competent job, and tee yourself up for a nomination to a justice for SCOTUS.

Bottom line: don’t be surprised if Napolitano gets tapped for the bench.

Now that Secretary Napolitano has had a couple months under her belt, it’s more clear than ever that the only place she can land is the Supreme Court.  The number of clumsy missteps she has made over the last few weeks have been near-fatal for seeking a future elective office.

You have to hand it to Obama and his White House team… they are the masters of framing a news story. With the retirement of Supreme Court Justice Souter, Obama gets his first crack at nominating someone to the highest court in the land.  As I twittered a couple days ago, there is a near certainty that Obama is going to get three picks before 2013.

The mastery of the Obama team is that Republican Senator Orrin Hatch has speculated that Obama could announce his pick as early as this week.  When the press asked Obama’s press secretary about that, he didn’t confirm or deny.  They let Hatch carry the story.

Now Sen. Hatch has been around for a long, long time.  He’s been through a bunch of Supreme Court nomination hearings and he isn’t dumb.  He spoke with Obama, got a commitment that the nominee would not be a radical leftist and then was able to tell the press that the pick could come as early as this week.

Here’s my prediction.  Obama will not pick a hard-core leftist (he has two more coming soon), but he’ll pick a predictable liberal (which won’t change the composition of the court) and demonstrate that he is “reasonable” when the nominee sails through committee with Hatch’s support and through the Senate with a bunch of Republican votes.

With Ruth Bader Ginsberg fighting cancer, and the uncertainty of whether that will lead to her retirement, the speculation of who will replace her is in full tilt.  A couple of things that are near-certainties:  It will be a woman (Obama is not going to allow the court to go all-male) and because it will be a woman replacing a woman, it won’t have to be someone with judicial experience, in fact, it likely won’t, because it’s hard to criticize where a Supreme Court nominee will come down on various issues if there is no previous judicial decisions.

I was one of the people that was shocked that Governor Napolitano took Department of Homeland Security.  I was shocked because I have always viewed her as a pretty political animal.  Anyone who has ambition for higher elective office is taking a huge risk in heading up DHS.  Politically, it’s almost a no-win situation.  Do your job perfectly, no fumbles on major disasters, no terrorist attacks, nobody notices.

But one slip-up can be career-ending.

That is, unless you have your sights on the Supreme Court.  Then it begins to make a lot more sense.  Take on the responsibility of the largest agency in the Federal government, do a competent job, and tee yourself up for a nomination to a justice for SCOTUS.

Bottom line: don’t be surprised if Napolitano gets tapped for the bench.