As you may remember, I have been less than enthusiastic about Roberts from his initial nomination, and my suspicion is high that Bush will in fact nominate another "off-the-radar" jurist to the Supreme Court. Possible suspects: Julia Smith Gibbons of the Sixth Circuit, who also happens to be from Tennessee and so is well known to Law & Order actor and erstwhile nominee vetter Fred Dalton Thompson. Religious conservatives would not be pleased with her nomination because of her decision at the appeals level in McCreary County v. ACLU (the Ten Commandments case from Kentucky), but that might aid her in muzzling Democratic opposition. Another possible "off-the-radar" nominee is Jose Linares (a Cuban American) of the Federal District Court for New Jersey.

Michael Meckler wrote:

Religious conservatives would not be pleased with her nomination because of her decision at the appeals level in McCreary County v. ACLU (the Ten Commandments case from Kentucky), but that might aid her in muzzling Democratic opposition.

That strikes me as rather ignorant (not on your part, but on the part of those who would be bothered by it), unless there was some evidence that her opinion in that case reflected her genuine position rather than her honest application of precedent. She's not even an appeals court judge, she's a district judge. As such, she is required to apply binding precedent regardless of whether she thinks those precedents were decided correctly. One could reasonably object to the specifics of a ruling, to how reasonably she applied such precedents or how well written a decision is, but to object because she applied precedent in a manner they disagreed with is quite absurd. If religious conservatives are bothered by this, I think that says something about their level of understanding (as a group, not as individuals) of how the courts operate.

As far as the nomination goes, the more I think about it the more I think Garza is the obvious choice. In addition to the fact that he would be the first Hispanic named to the court, something Bush has openly wanted to do, there's one other big advantage - he's from New Orleans. It would be a nice gesture toward the city in the aftermath of Katrina as well. It just makes perfect sense politically.

Ed,

She's been sitting on the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals since the summer of 2002. The biography I linked to on the DOJ site was for her confirmation hearings at that time. There was brief talk about her nomination being held up in the then Democratic-controlled Senate order to prevent her from hearing the Michigan affirmative action case, but she was never reckoned a controversial nominee and was easily confirmed.

On Garza, I think a lot of folks were enthusiastic about him and thought he should have been the nominee the last time around. Even though the Fifth Circuit (with headquarters in New Orleans) has the deepest bench of solidly conservative appellate judges, all this "Katrina" nomination talk may, unfortunately, only trivialize if not doom a nomination from this circuit. BTW, Garza is a Texan. Edith Clement, who also sits on the Fifth Circuit, is from New Orleans and would be the more obvious "Katrina" pick.

Oops, thanks for the correction. I didn't realize Clement was actually from New Orleans. That certainly puts her into the mix. Everyone thought she was the nominee the morning they announced Roberts, so she is obviously on the short list. Makes perfect political sense, a conservative female from New Orleans.