A quick thought on the Supreme Court situation

[catsittingstill]

Women are slightly over half the population.  So women should be slightly over half the Supreme Court.  There are nine Supreme Court judges, so that means five of them should be women.

The most we've ever had is two.  George W. Bush left us with only one.  Of course the next Supreme Court judge should be a woman.  The next four Supreme Court judges should be women.  Unless Ruth Bader Ginsberg retires in that time, in which case the next five Supreme Court judges should be women.

Duh.

And I'm being moderate and patient, here.  If I was really going for true equality and fairness, the Supreme Court should have only women on it for the next one hundred and ninety years, at which point a single male would be allowed to serve and twelve years later, a second male would be allowed to serve, with the court only opening up to allow a total of four males sixteen years after that.

Comments

[pocketnaomi.livejournal.com]

Roberts is a first-class lawyer, even if I haven't been happy with him as a judge. Scalia used to be a first-class lawyer before his ideology drove him outright wacko. Thomas just slipped through the cracks, and I don't know enough about Alito's pre-Court service to have an informed opinion.

I'd like to see Elena Kagan at least vetted, though I don't know what I'd find if I did take a serious look at her scholarship. But she seems to have her head screwed on straight. She's probably a little too much of a novice at that level, though -- she might be better for the next opening, after a few years as solicitor general.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

Don't know if we can afford to wait for the next opening; no guarantee it will happen under a democratic president.

[pocketnaomi.livejournal.com]

Odds are pretty good that we'll have at least one more opening within the next three years. Probably Stevens', unfortunately.

An interesting possibility

[bigbumble.livejournal.com]

Michigan's Governor is conspicuously absent from the Obama administration despite the large role she played in the transition. A quick look at her bio makes me suspect she is angling for the supreme court after her current term ends in 2011. I would be interested in learning your opinions of her.
From her state website bio:
JENNIFER M. GRANHOLM was elected governor in 2002 and re-elected in 2006. She began her career in public service as a judicial clerk for Michigan's 6th Circuit Court of Appeals. She became a federal prosecutor in Detroit in 1990, and in 1994, she was appointed Wayne County Corporation Counsel. Granholm was elected Michigan's first female attorney general in 1998.

Re: An interesting possibility

[pocketnaomi.livejournal.com]

As a governor, I've been impressed with what I hear of her. I don't know enough about her as a lawyer rather than a politician to be able to tell how she'd do as a judge, and since she hasn't been one, the only person who might have a decent opinion on how well she'd do as a judge would be Judge Damon Keith, whom she clerked for.

acrobatty used to be a clerk within the 6th Circuit. If I get a chance, I'll ask him if the judge he worked for knows Granholm, and what he thinks of her, or if he knows what Keith thinks of her.