Colo. Judge Says She Was Approached About Supreme Court Seat
A federal judge has told a Colorado newspaper that she was approached by people in contact with the White House about her interest in a U.S. Supreme Court nomination.
U.S. District Judge Christine Arguello told the Pueblo Chieftan that the intermediaries who approached her about a week ago asked if she “would be willing to go through the intense scrutiny” that would occur if Obama nominates her, the newspaper reports.
“I said ‘yes.’ I wouldn’t have gone this far if I didn’t think I could serve my country in this way,” Arguello told the Chieftan.
Arguello, a Mexican-American, is a Harvard law grad who is the daughter of a railroad worker and the first in her family to go to college, National Public Radio reports. The Chieftan says that, as a child, Arguello lived in a rail car with her family in the town where her father worked for the railroad. The NPR story highlighted eight people who have gotten little attention as possible Supreme Court nominees.
President Bush appointed Arguello to be a federal trial judge; she was seated in October. She was also a law professor and a deputy to Ken Salazar when he was Colorado attorney general; he is now secretary of Interior.
Meanwhile, speculation mounts that Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, at the White House for President Obama’s announcement of new fuel industry standards, will stick around for an interview for a possible Supreme Court nomination, the Washington Post reports.
