SCOTUSblog Predicts Solicitor General Kagan Will Be Next High Court Justice
A blog known for its breaking-news coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court is making a bold prediction: The next new justice will be Solicitor General Elena Kagan.
Supreme Court litigator Tom Goldstein looks into his crystal ball in a SCOTUSblog post entitled: “On October 4, 2010, Elena Kagan Will Ask Her First Question as a Supreme Court Justice.”
Goldstein notes media reports that the White House is preparing for possibly two Supreme Court vacancies, but says suggestions that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg will retire are flat-out wrong. Justice John Paul Stevens, on the other hand, “very likely will retire.”
Why Kagan? President Obama won’t want to spend his political capital on a fight to get a liberal Supreme Court nominee confirmed—including the “moderately liberal” appellate judge, Diane Wood, the blog says.
Wood has written decisions on hot-button issues such as abortion, Goldstein says, while Kagan has “an exceptional ability to sound extremely articulate and thoughtful without saying anything that could cause offense.” She is also “super-smart and genuinely knowledgeable.”
“Look at it this way. Which of these three options is going to get President Obama re-elected: (a) 500,000 new jobs, (b) expanding health care for 10 million additional Americans, or (c) Seventh Circuit Judge Diane Wood? No one—not even the most devoted members of the American Constitution Society—believes the answer is ‘c,’ ” he writes.
