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Politics : The Judiciary -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: sandintoes who wrote (59)	9/25/2005 3:31:31 AM
From: Peter Dierks	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 817

A look at the women who may replace Justice O'Connor. (Chick List) BY MELANIE KIRKPATRICK Sunday, September 25, 2005 12:01 a.m. EDT If Edith Jones is nominated for the Supreme Court, at least she'll know what she's in for. The confirmation process for federal judges has deteriorated into "trench warfare," she told The American Enterprise magazine in June. "Every time I think it can't get any worse, it does." John Roberts's confirmation may be the exception that proves Judge Jones's rule. During his hearings, Sens. Arlen Specter and Dianne Feinstein asked insulting questions about his Catholicism; Ted Kennedy called his Reagan-era writings "mean-spirited"; and several Democrats roughed him up over his views on civil rights. By modern standards, that's a love fest. But the next confirmation is another matter. In selecting a nominee, one factor the White House must weigh is who would have the best chance of surviving what is sure to be a fight and, probably, a filibuster attempt. It's all the more interesting since the nominee weathering Ted Kennedy's attacks may be of the same sex as Mary Jo Kopechne. There are 10 or so women whose names come up as possibilities for the Court, including Edith Clement of the Fifth Circuit, whose reported nomination faked everyone out on the day Judge Roberts was named, and appeals-court judges Karen Williams, Diane Sykes and Consuelo Callahan. But the feminine Big Four are Edith Jones, Priscilla Owen, Janice Rogers Brown and Alice Batchelder, all appeals-court judges. Each is a judicial conservative of intellectual heft and with more experience on the bench than Judge Roberts. None, however, is as bulletproof as Judge Roberts, who managed to pursue a 25-year career in law without leaving much of a public record of his views on hot-button issues. Judge Jones has been on the short list longer than most contenders have been on the bench. Reagan appointed her to the Fifth Circuit in 1985, and she is reputed to have been considered for the seats that went to Clarence Thomas and David Souter. Before becoming a judge, she was a bankruptcy lawyer and expert in business law. She's no stranger to politics, having worked as general counsel of the Republican Party of Texas. She has said and written numerous things that could be used to attack her on ideological grounds. She's particularly vulnerable on Roe v. Wade, which she has called an "exercise in raw judicial power." In a concurring opinion in McCorvey v. Hill last year, a case involving the original defendant in Roe, she wrote of the court's "willful blindness to evolving knowledge" and suggested that Roe be reconsidered in light of modern scientific evidence on the viability of fetuses and the effects of abortion on the health of women. If anything, Judge Brown is even more outspoken. She once referred to colleagues on the California Supreme Court as "philosopher kings" when it overturned a law requiring parental consent for minors who wanted abortions. She's an advocate for property rights, and she's called big government "the opiate of the masses" and the "drug of choice" for many segments of society. In 2000, she wrote the opinion affirming Proposition 209, which banned racial and sex preferences in state hiring and contracting. Her credentials aren't as impressive as Judge Jones's, and she might be too libertarian for Mr. Bush. But if nominated, her personal story would complicate matters for liberal interest groups. The NAACP would have to decide whether to oppose the confirmation of a daughter of a sharecropper from Alabama. She was confirmed to the D.C. Circuit earlier this year as part of the filibuster-ending deal in the Senate. Judge Owen was part of the same pact and now sits on the Fifth Circuit. Before that, she was a judge on the Supreme Court of Texas, where she upheld a parental-notification law and was supposedly accused of judicial activism by Alberto Gonzales. He says his comment was misinterpreted, but that won't stop the left from using it against her. Those who say the mild-mannered Sunday school teacher might not be up for a fight forget she just endured a four-year battle for her appeals-court job. Finally, there's Judge Batchelder, who's been called a Midwestern Edith Jones. Reagan appointed her to the federal bench in Ohio, and the first President Bush named her to the Sixth Circuit in 1991. She has voted to uphold Ohio's ban on partial-birth abortion, strike down the University of Michigan's affirmative-action program and allow the Ten Commandments to be displayed in a courtroom. Her husband served 30 years in the Ohio statehouse, which means she understands politics. A downside is that, at 61, she's somewhat older than the competition. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid has already indicated Democrats would filibuster a Brown or Owen nomination. Other nominees might meet the same fate, depending on how the moderates who signed the filibuster deal define "extraordinary circumstances." That could prompt Republicans to trigger the nuclear option and send the nomination to the floor for a vote. The lesson of the Roberts nomination is that a nominee who shares the president's conservative judicial philosophy can be confirmed. If his next nominee goes down to defeat, Mr. Bush should be prepared to keep on naming them until one is confirmed. There are plenty of strong candidates out there--including many women. Ms. Kirkpatrick is associate editor of The Wall Street Journal's editorial page. opinionjournal.com