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 News from Around the Americas | July 2005 
O'Connor Action Triggers Major Political Campaign
 Mark Memmott - USA Today
| | Bush calls Gonzales "a great friend of mine." |
Washington — President Bush was barely back inside the White House Friday morning when the battle of the interest groups began over Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's seat on the Supreme Court. Minutes after Bush concluded his Rose Garden remarks about O'Connor's retirement, the first shots were fired in what is expected to be a full-blown political campaign complete with charges, countercharges, sound bites and coded messages.
One of Bush's leading supporters on the right, C. Boyden Gray of the conservative Committee for Justice, predicted that Democrats and liberals would bow to the demands of "their financial backers the trial lawyers, the pornography industry, the teachers unions" to attack any nominee. Moderate Democrats, he warned, "will be held accountable" if that happens — presumably at the polls.
Also from the right, the conservative group Progress for America released an Internet ad that sarcastically charges that Democrats would attack Bush even if he nominated George Washington or Ben Franklin. They would go after Washington "for his environmental record of chopping down cherry trees," the ad declares.
From the left, the liberal advocacy group MoveOn Pac released a TV ad it says will run on CNN and Fox News in five states and Washington, D.C., starting Tuesday. The ad, also posted at www.moveonpac.org, ominously states that Bush was "playing politics" when he supported efforts to have the government intervene in the case of Terri Schiavo, a Florida woman who earlier this year was the subject of a bitter "right-to-die" dispute within her family. MoveOn Pac's ad warns that Bush might choose "an extremist who will threaten our rights" to replace O'Connor.
Also from the left, groups ranging from the AFL-CIO to NARAL People for the American Way and the Sierra Club lined up to send Bush a coordinated message: consult with Democrats, they asked, and look for a moderate, consensus nominee in O'Connor's mold.
Ten Contenders for the Court
Joan Biskupic & Toni Locy - AP
10 potential contenders to replace Sandra Day O'Connor on the Supreme Court.
Samuel Alito, 55
 Based: Newark, N.J.
Now: U.S. appeals court judge, 3rd Circuit (court covers Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and the Virgin Islands)
Background: Graduate of Yale Law School. Appointed to federal bench in 1990 by the first President Bush. Previously was a U.S. attorney in New Jersey and a Justice Department lawyer during the Reagan administration.
The skinny: Alito has been on Republican court nominee lists since the first President Bush's administration. Nicknamed "Sc'Alito" because he's a consistent conservative in the mold of Justice Antonin Scalia. Alito has a strong law-and-order bent. A decision he penned in a Pennsylvania death penalty case was reversed recently by the U.S. Supreme Court. The high court threw out a death sentence (which had been upheld by Alito), saying that a convicted killer had not had competent lawyers. When the Supreme Court upheld abortion rights in a 1992 case from Pennsylvania, it reversed an Alito opinion that approved a state law that required women to tell their husbands before having an abortion.
Janice Rogers Brown, 56
 Based: Washington, D.C.
Now: U.S. appeals court judge, D.C. Circuit
Background: Law degree from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1977. Was deputy in charge of the civil and criminal divisions of the California attorney general's office, and was legal affairs secretary for California Gov. Pete Wilson from 1991 to 1994. First African-American woman to serve on the California Supreme Court.
The skinny: Daughter of an Alabama sharecropper who told U.S. senators during her confirmation hearings for the appeals court seat that she likes to "stir the pot" to make people think. In speeches, she has criticized affirmative action and has called big government an "opiate." She was among President Bush's judicial nominees who were blocked by Democrats until a deal was struck in May between 14 Democratic and Republican senators that ended a filibuster.
Edith Brown Clement, 57
 Based: New Orleans
Now: U.S. appeals court judge, 5th Circuit (court covers Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi)
Background: Law degree from Tulane University in 1972. Appointed to the district court in New Orleans by the first President Bush in 1991. Briefly was the district court's chief judge until the current President Bush appointed her to the appeals court in 2001.
The skinny: Clement was one of Bush's first 11 nominees to the U.S. appeals courts announced with much fanfare at the White House in 2001. The Senate confirmed her quickly, while Democrats and Republicans spent the next four years battling over many of the others. Her paper trail is relatively non-controversial.
Emilio Garza, 58
 Based: San Antonio
Now: U.S. appeals court judge, 5th Circuit
Background: Graduate of the University of Texas law school. Appointed to federal trial court in 1988 by President Reagan, then elevated to the appeals bench by the first President Bush in 1991. Earlier was a judge in Bexar County, Texas (San Antonio). Garza was on the first President Bush's short list of high court candidates in 1991, when Bush chose Clarence Thomas.
The skinny: Bush has expressed interest in appointing the nation's first Hispanic justice, and Garza could be an attractive candidate. Conservative on defendants' rights, he has been a consistent vote in upholding death sentences. In a ruling affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court, he wrote an opinion rejecting the civil rights claim of a mother who was arrested and handcuffed for not wearing a seat belt. After the Supreme Court's 1992 ruling that said wives shouldn't have to notify their husbands before having an abortion, Garza said the ruling "causes me concern." He wrote that abortion regulation should be left to the states
Alberto Gonzales, 49
 Based: Washington, D.C.
Now: U.S. attorney general
Background: Harvard law degree. Longtime friend of President Bush, who as Texas' governor gave Gonzales several jobs, including secretary of State and a seat on the state's Supreme Court. In Bush's first term, Gonzales was White House counsel and was in position to choose Bush's lower-court nominees. Now as attorney general has been overseeing selection process for Supreme Court nominees.
The skinny: As White House counsel, he defended plans for military tribunals to be used to try some foreign terrorism suspects and oversaw legal policies that led to questions over whether the administration created conditions for detainees to be abused. In Texas, he expressed support for affirmative action and, as a state court judge, he was part of a majority that allowed some exceptions to a state law that required minors seeking abortions to notify their parents. That has led conservative groups such as the Federalist Society to express reservations about him as a high court choice.
Edith Jones, 56
 Based: Houston
Now: U.S. appeals court judge, 5th Circuit
Background: Law degree from the University of Texas in 1974. Appointed to the appellate court by President Reagan in 1985. Before that, practiced in a private firm.
The skinny: Was general counsel to Texas Republicans and was at the same law firm as Bush family friend James Baker III. She has written strongly worded decisions backing Texas' death penalty. In a September 2004 opinion, she agreed that the 5th Circuit could not revisit Texas' abortion laws as requested by Norma McCorvey, the Texas woman whose challenge to the state's ban on abortions led to the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortions nationwide in 1973. Jones lamented that no court will hear evidence that McCorvey gathered suggesting that women who obtain abortions suffer long-term emotional effects. She wrote that the high court, through "constitutional adjudication," has ensured that "the facts no longer matter" when it comes to abortion.
Michael Luttig, 51
 Based: Alexandria, Va.
Now: U.S. appeals court judge, 4th Circuit (court covers Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia)
Background: Law degree from University of Virginia. Luttig was law clerk to Justice Scalia when Scalia was a U.S. appeals court judge, then clerked for Chief Justice Warren Burger. Luttig worked in Justice Department under the first President Bush, who appointed him to the federal bench in 1991.
The skinny: Known for consistent conservatism in the mold of his former boss, Scalia. Luttig has a limited view of congressional power, as seen in a ruling in which the 4th Circuit struck down part of the Violence Against Women Act that would have allowed women to sue their attackers for money damages. (The U.S. Supreme Court upheld his decision.) He voted to uphold a Virginia law compelling doctors to notify a parent before performing an abortion on a teenage girl. He ordered a state ban on a procedure that foes call "partial-birth abortion" to take effect while it was being challenged in court. The Supreme Court struck down such laws in 2000.
Michael McConnell, 50
 Based: Salt Lake City
Now: U.S. appeals court judge, 10th Circuit (court covers Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Utah and Wyoming)
Background: Law degree from University of Chicago. He was a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice William Brennan and was a Justice Department lawyer during the Reagan administration. Has been a professor at the universities of Chicago and Utah.
The skinny: As a law professor, McConnell was a prolific writer specializing in matters of church and state. He challenged the strict separation of church and state and argued that non-religious and religious programs should be funded by the government on an equal basis. He was also critical of Roe v. Wade, the ruling that legalized abortion nationwide. When he was nominated to the 10th Circuit, he was backed by law professors across the ideological spectrum. Before his appointment, he often was involved in Supreme Court cases. He helped represent the Boy Scouts in 2000 as the organization successfully argued that they could exclude a gay scoutmaster.
John Roberts, 50
 Based: Washington, D.C.
Now: U.S. appeals court judge, D.C. Circuit.
Background: Harvard law degree. Appointed to the appeals court by Bush in 2003. Roberts had been a partner in a Washington, D.C., firm. He earlier worked in the Reagan and first Bush administrations, including as principal deputy U.S. solicitor general.
The skinny: First nominated to a U.S. appeals court by the first President Bush, but the nomination did not get a Senate hearing before Bush's term ended. In private practice, he was a frequent and successful advocate before the Supreme Court, often representing business clients. Roberts' two-year tenure on the District of Columbia Circuit has not produced any immediately controversial rulings. When he was a deputy solicitor general in the first Bush administration, he endorsed a legal brief that urged the court to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Harvie Wilkinson, 60
 Based: Charlottesville, Va.
Now: U.S. appeals court judge, 4th Circuit
Background: Law degree from University of Virginia. Former law clerk to the late Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell. Appointed to appeals court in 1984 by President Reagan; earlier worked in Reagan's Justice Department and was editor of The (Norfolk) Virginian-Pilot. Author of several books, including One Nation Indivisible, which argues against racial preferences in college admissions, public contracting and congressional voting districts.
The skinny: He is generally conservative and likely would draw fire from Senate Democrats for his vote in 1988 to uphold a Virginia law compelling doctors to notify a parent before performing an abortion on a minor. Wilkinson also wrote the lower-court decision in the case of Yaser Esam Hamdi that said the enemy combatant (a U.S. citizen) could be kept incommunicado from lawyers and without being charged. The U.S. Supreme Court reversed the decision. |
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