SCOTUS Brief 3/10/2016
AP: Conservative Groups “Hunting Damaging Info” on potential nominees – Politico: Poll shows upside to Senate GOP stance – National Review: Sri Srinivasan “Not So Moderate” – National Review: Ketanji Jackson’s Ties to Montrose Baptist Church
- AP’s Alan Fram writes that conservative groups are “hunting damaging information” on potential nominees.
Associated Press: Conservative, liberal groups gear up for Supreme Court fight
“Conservative and liberal groups are only beginning their battle over the Supreme Court vacancy, with a smattering of television ads and behind-the-scenes research serving as warning shots in what’s sure to be an expensive fight that will color November’s elections… Conservatives have also started hunting damaging information on potential nominees. The Judicial Crisis Network’s Severino wrote in The National Review about one of them, federal appeals court Judge Jane Kelly. Severino cited a 2005 newspaper article that said Kelly, then a public defender representing a previously convicted child abuser, argued in court that he was not a threat to society.”
- Politico’s Seung Min Kim writes that Senate Republicans are circulating a new poll showing the public is on their side in the battle over replacing Justice Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court.
POLITICO: Senate GOP polling shows upside to SCOTUS blockade
“Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas), according to GOP sources, is quietly circulating a four-page memo throughout the Senate Republican Conference on the public’s views on filling the high court’s vacancy. The memo, obtained by POLITICO, makes the case that a majority of voters would prefer to keep deceased Justice Antonin Scalia’s seat empty — for a year or even longer — rather than allow Obama to nominate a liberal justice that would move the court to the left. ‘The survey found almost unanimous awareness of the death of Justice Scalia, strong support for originalist intent in interpreting the Constitution, and concern over President Obama appointing a liberal justice who would tip the ideological balance of the court,’ Republican pollster Greg Strimple wrote in the memo.”
- JCN’s Carrie Severino writes at National Review that potential Supreme Court nominee Sri Srinivasan is not a moderate as he is said to be.
Carrie Severino in National Review: The “Moderates” Are Not So Moderate: Sri Srinivasan
“One of the names that keeps coming up along those lines is former Obama Administration official and sitting D.C. Circuit judge Sri Srinivasan. Is he a ‘moderate’? Not according to his record… The Supreme Court unanimously rejected Srinivasan’s argument [on the Hosanna-Tabor case]. Not one of the liberal justices came to Srinivasan’s defense… Last year the EPA issued new ‘Clean Power’ regulations that pose an unprecedented economic threat to the American economy… Power companies sought a temporary stay of the regulations, since without a stay they would have to fire thousands of employees while waiting for the courts to rule. Yet Srinivasan voted to deny the request. The Supreme Court had to grant the stay, with all four liberal justices dissenting.”
- Ed Whelan writes at National Review that Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s ties to Montrose Baptist Church might cause her problems on the Left.
Ed Whelan in National Review: Ketanji Jackson’s Surprising Candidacy
“I’ve previously noted one big reason to be surprised to find Ketanji Brown Jackson on the short list for a Supreme Court nomination. Here’s another: According to the questionnaire response that she submitted to the Senate Judiciary Committee in connection with her 2012 nomination to a federal district court, Ketanji Brown Jackson served as an advisory school board member for the Montrose Christian School in Rockville, Maryland, in 2010 and 2011. The Montrose Christian School is a ministry of the Montrose Baptist Church. As its website proclaims, the Montrose Christian School provides ‘Christ-centered education for the glory of the Savior and the good of society’ In addition to a statement of the truths that “[w]e uncompromisingly hold,” the school directs the reader to the “fuller understanding of what we believe” on the Montrose Baptist Church’s website… Marriage is the uniting of one man and one woman in covenant commitment for a lifetime…I will simply note that the Left and the media would mercilessly attack any Supreme Court nominee of a Republican president who had such a tie.”
