Justice Sandra Day O’Connor has resigned from the Supreme Court, creating the first vacancy that President Bush will have to fill on the Court.
Word on the street is that Emilio Garza of the 5th Circuit is the top candidate for a replacement. Personally, I’d love to see Justice Janice Rogers Brown replace O’Connor. She’s as conservative as they come, and the Senate has already approved her once. This would be a nice piece of political jujitsu for the President – the Democrats already let her escape one filibuster – if she didn’t merit “extreme circumstances” before, why would she now?
The most important thing is that we not get another Souter — do that and the balance of power in the Courts shifts dramatically. The last thing this country needs are more half-assed decisions like Kelo…
UPDATE: Here’s an excellent backgrounder on Judge Garza.
Oh, and Mr. President, for the love of God, don’t nominate Gonzales…
It’s no accident that O’Connor is going before Rehnquist. After the big anti-filibuster deal, the Republicans need to bait the Dems into violating the “extreme circumstances” clause, and there would have been little incentive to do so if they were replacing the right-wing Rehnquist. With swing voter O’Connor going first, a battle royale is inevitable. This way, the GOP can nominate some divisive right-winger who’s opposed by 55-62% of Americans, yet still win the PR battle if the Dems choose to fight the nomination.