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Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Courts - Still more on Hoosier Maureen Mahoney for the Supreme Court
In late October, 2005, during the period of speculation over who President Bush would nominate to replace Chief Justice Rehnquist, the ILB posted several entries on Merrillville native Maureen Mahoney, including this one on Oct. 29, 2005.
Ms. Mahoney's name is in the air again, as a result of this interview with Jan Crawford Greenburg, author of the recently published, and acclaimed, book, Supreme Conflict . The interview, in the blog Confirm Them, begins with this:
1. Given the current political climate, who do you think President Bush will nominate to the Court if a third SCOTUS retirement occurs during his presidency?Answer: Janice Rogers Brown or Maureen Mahoney. Now I know you’re asking how in the world I could possibly mention those two very different contenders in one breath, right? Ok, here’s why: It all depends on which justice leaves and when. President Bush will tap a solid judicial conservative (i.e., Brown) if he gets a nomination this year. * * *
The closer we get to 2008, the better are Maureen Mahoney’s odds, because she’s a conservative who could get confirmed. I hate to segue from Anthony Kennedy to Maureen Mahoney, because the only thing they have in common is a surname ending in “y.” They are nothing alike. Don’t get me wrong here. I’m not comparing Mahoney to Kennedy. It’s the situation, the timing, that I’m talking about. Mahoney is incredibly impressive as a lawyer and advocate; people who call her the “female John Roberts” aren’t too far off the mark. But lawyers in the Bush administration didn’t seriously consider Mahoney for the O’Connor vacancy because they didn’t believe she was conservative enough. She’d argued in support of affirmative action in the Michigan case, and there was a feeling in the White House that she actually believed her argument. Now that Democrats are running the Judiciary Committee (perhaps Mahoney should be thanking George Allen), her work on that case would be a big plus. Mahoney may not be a social conservative (neither is Estrada, for that matter), but let’s not forget that Mahoney IS a judicial conservative. She’s no Anthony Kennedy. She would be the kind of justice—smart, disciplined, skilled-- I’d suspect John Roberts would appreciate having on the Court for the next 20 or 30 years. And she could get confirmed in late 2007/early 2008.
I went through the other contenders in the book, including why some knocked themselves out for good. But there are other possibilities: Diane Sykes of the 7th Circuit is one. Priscilla Owen of the 5th is another, though I’d put my money on JRB if President Bush wanted to go strong this year. And one of my sources insists that Edith Brown Clement of the 5th could make a comeback, but I have a hard time believing that. She’d be incredibly disappointing to the base, and she also didn’t impress folks in the White House.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on February 27, 2007 05:59 PM
Posted to Courts in general