Sanders wrote:

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Supreme Court Justice Barack Obama?

By Jeffrey Rosen

Sunday, February 21, 2010

 

He's too detached and cerebral. Too deferential to Congress. Too willing to compromise. And he's too much of a law professor and not enough of a commander in chief, as Sarah Palin recently admonished.

These are some of the qualities for which the president, rightly or wrongly, is criticized. They are also the qualities that make him well suited for another steady job on the federal payroll: Barack Obama, Supreme Court justice.

Think about it. Though Obama has struggled to find his footing in the White House, his education, temperament and experience make him ideally suited to lead the liberal wing of the court, especially at a time when a narrow conservative majority seems increasingly intent on challenging progressive economic reforms for the first time since the New Deal. Obama is clearly eager to take on the four truly conservative justices -- Samuel Alito, John Roberts, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas -- as his State of the Union smackdown suggests. But as president, he's constrained by that pesky separation of powers. So what better way to engage the fight than to join the bench?

It would be unusual, but not difficult, for Obama to get himself on the Supreme Court. He could nominate himself to replace John Paul Stevens, for example, or he could gamble and promise Hillary Rodham Clinton that he won't run for reelection in 2012 in exchange for a pledge of appointment to the next vacancy. And although, as president, Obama has seemed haunted by the example of his political hero, Abraham Lincoln, on the Supreme Court, he could take up the mantle of the greatest liberal justice of the 20th century, Louis Brandeis, another community organizer with a background in politics. In the end, Obama's legacy on the court might surpass his legacy in the White House. (Emphasis added)

Obama's academic credentials for the court -- including serving as president of the Harvard Law Review and as a constitutional law professor at the University of Chicago -- are obvious. But it's his even temperament and low boiling point that seem tailor-made for the court at this polarized moment. Obama's patient courtship of the vain and wavering swing votes in the Senate (such as Joe Lieberman) during the health-care debate, for example, is ideal preparation for courting the vain and wavering swing vote on the court (Justice Anthony Kennedy). And Obama's detached and judicious disposition would equip him to challenge the conservative hothead, Scalia, without descending to his name-calling.

In terms of judicial philosophy, too, Obama is well suited to take on the pro-corporate activism of the conservative justices -- on display in the recent Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision, which gutted campaign finance laws and which, according to recent polls, strong national majorities oppose.  (Emphasis added)

In his 2006 book, "The Audacity of Hope," Obama wrote that throughout American history, constitutional values have generally been defined by ground-up political activism rather than imposed from above by judges.

More . . .

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LOL, I am not so sure about even temperament there! LOL!!

One thing is sure. If he is a SCOTUS judge, he will be an activist and not a constructionist.

I certainly like the gamble part! LOL

After the fast one he pulled at the last SOTU address, I wonder if they will want this skunk in the conference chambers! LOL

-- Edited by Sanders on Friday 19th of February 2010 05:29:33 PM

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LOL Now the media wants to stick him on the Supreme Court since someone in his administraion wants Hillary stuck in SCOTUS.  LOL Karma