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Expect Another Woman on Supreme Court

Obama poised to change high court's gender balance

By Nick McMaster,  Newser Staff

Posted May 3, 2010 5:59 PM CDT

(Newser) – The prospect of nominating another woman to the Supreme Court appeals to President Obama and may strongly influence his choice of the successor to John Paul Stevens. With the Court's imminent retirees made of up mostly of liberals, Obama will probably only preserve the court's ideological status quo. What he can change, however, is its gender balance, Daniel Klaidman writes for Newsweek.

Obama has privately told friends that he'd like nothing more than to leave the presidency having installed three women on the bench. Doing so would have short-term advantages: Women form a disproportionately large fraction of Obama supporters. That's another good sign for Elena Kagan, who is again on Obama's short list. The solicitor general has a reputation for building consensus with conservative colleagues—a quality Obama admires.

In this Jan. 28, 2010 file photo, U.S. Solicitor General Elena Kagan speaks during a panel about Women Advocates of the Supreme Court Bar at the Newseum in Washington.
In this Jan. 28, 2010 file photo, U.S. Solicitor General Elena Kagan speaks during a panel about Women Advocates of the Supreme Court Bar at the Newseum in Washington.   (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)
U.S. Solicitor General Elena Kagan speaks during a panel about Women Advocates of the Supreme Court Bar, Thursday, Jan. 28,2010, at the Newseum in Washington.
U.S. Solicitor General Elena Kagan speaks during a panel about Women Advocates of the Supreme Court Bar, Thursday, Jan. 28,2010, at the Newseum in Washington.   (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 7 comments
hidflect
May 4, 2010 6:00 PM CDT
Oh Dog, not Kagan, please. Any other woman but not this one... A torture supporter and a closet right-winger.
Reader38197885
May 4, 2010 4:26 AM CDT
I don't care about the Gender, as long as he or she is so far Left as to make Alitos Conservatism look like childs play!!!
brawne
May 4, 2010 1:36 AM CDT
Does anyone here remember FDR trying to load the Supreme Court? Anyone? Bummer. It's what made him tragic. And why liberalism and conservatism share one flawed, ethical core--the need to rule. He ain't gonna put a woman there. I keep trying to tell you that that slot already has a name on it. If you could step out of the brainwashing that is politics since about when Bill Moyers ran the Daisy ad--you'd know that. And, K-guy I know that we met over the daisy ad and I know that he ran it only once--but that he ran it at all is BULLSHIT.

 
women • US Supreme Court • President Obama

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