Executive Branch
Supreme Court Shot for Hillary Clinton?
Posted May 21, 2008, 07:36 pm CDT
By Martha Neil
As Barack Obama slowly but surely takes a definitive lead in the Democratic primary, there's another option he could pursue to put opponent Hillary Clinton on his team as she gamely continues her seeming losing battle for the presidential nomination.
"It's likely that the next president will face at least one Supreme Court vacancy," a Washington Post guest writer points out in a much-read opinion piece today. "Obama should promise Hillary Clinton, now, that if he wins in November, the vacancy will be hers, making her first on a list of one."
Even if Obama could persuade Clinton to accept a second-place position on a joint ticket, she would be a significant addition to the Supreme Court because of her intelligence, tenacity and expected liberal viewpoint, especially compared to some of the court's sitting justices, according to James Andrew Miller, who served as an aide to former Senate Majority Leader Howard Baker Jr., a Republican.
"President Obama would engender praise (at least from Democrats) at the prospect of Hillary going toe to toe with Clarence Thomas, Antonin Scalia and Samuel Alito," Miller writes. "Clinton's gumption and determination might make her one of the most powerful forces ever on the court, particularly when it comes to swaying other justices when the court is closely divided."
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