Roberts to be Chief Justice

Over the weekend there were several events that occurred that are going to create significant change in the Supreme Court. When Chief Justice William Rehnquist passed away late friday night it created an extra vacancy in the court. Because of the nomination process it actually could have created two vacancies at once, however. Had Bush decided to move Clarence Thomas to the Chief Justice role then Roberts would still be filling O'Connor's slot and someone would still need to fill Thomas's seat. This would have meant that 3 nominations were going on simultaneously.

Bush announced yesterday that he would nominate Roberts to the role of Chief Justice, sidestepping the third nomination fight, but creating a new set of problems. Rehnquist was, by far, the most conservative judge on the court. The role of Chief Justice functions as a first among equals kind of arrangement but it still wields some influence. It appears likely that Roberts is, at least, slightly to the left of Rehnquist and likely much farther to the left. I have repeatedly said that I believe he will turn out to be only a moderate conservative. That was fine for Republicans when it looked like he was replacing O'Connor and would move the court to the right. Now it appears that he is going to move the court, at least somewhat, to the left. He's also a young man and likely to be Chief Justice for 20 years or more. That means that Democrats are going to be meticulous in questioning if not outright hostile.


The other problem that this creates is that of replacing O'Connor. Bush dodged the, "You have to put a woman or minority on the bench" bullet once but I doubt he'll be able to do it again. Rightly or wrongly, many Americans, not just Liberals either, believe that diversity adds value to any process. I believe there is some truth in that, though I question how much. Whatever your feelings are on the subject, it seems increasingly likely that President Bush's choices will come from a list that will be light on White Men. Of all the names that have bandied about for the past two nominations there is one that intrigues me, Larry Thompson. Thompson was deputy Attorney General for President Bush and was the "highest ranking" African American in the Bush administration during the first term. He is currently Senior VP for PepsiCo which gives him a unique perspective coming into the courts. He's likely to be tough on crime and, at least somewhat, pro-business (though he's also worked on anti-corporate fraud task forces). Similar to Roberts, he has a very small paper trail to look through to determine his potential views. He also from somewhere outside the judiciary which will add further diversity to the court.

This should be an interesting couple months for the Bush administration.