Former President Bill Clinton has some advice for President Obama on the Supreme Court — find someone young who fills a void on the high court in experience or demographics. Oh and by the way, he says he and Hillary Clinton don’t want the job.
It’s a lesson Obama can learn from Clinton, who named Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the court when she was 60. Clinton told ABC’s Jake Tapper yesterday that it would not be “a good idea” for him to follow in William Howard Taft’s footsteps and take a seat on the court because he’s too old.
“I’m already 63-years-old, I hope I live to be 90,” Clinton said on “This Week.”
“But it’s not predictable. I’d like to see him put someone in there, late 40s, early 50s, on the court and someone with a lot of energy for the job.” Clinton said his wife would be “great” at the court but said she’d advise Obama “to appoint someone 10, 15 years younger.”
Obama’s first nominee Sonia Sotomayor was 55 when confirmed to the high court. The progressive justices on the court, including Ginsburg, are older than their conservative counterparts. President George W. Bush’s two nominees, Chief Justice John Roberts and Samuel Alito, were chosen with their age in mind. Roberts is 55, Alito is 60.
Clinton suggested Obama should “first of all see what the court is missing” when it comes to faith or sex. “Does there need to be another woman on the court? Should there be some other group represented? Because Justice Stevens was part of the four-person progressive block, he will of course nominate someone who will be part of that,” Clinton said.
Clinton also thinks Obama should consider someone who isn’t already sitting on a state or circuit court bench. See some of his options — including Solicitor General Elena Kagan — here.
“Now one thing I think he should think about is have we gotten — have we gone too far in this process that assuming only judges can be elected? That somehow you’re not qualified if you weren’t a judge,” Clinton said. “Some of the best justices in the Supreme Court in history have been non-judges, people that - as Hugo Black once famously said, had been sheriffs and county judges, people that have seen how the lofty decisions of the Supreme Court affect the ordinary lives of Americans.”
The former president also said he faced a far different political environment than Obama, since he never had a filibuster proof Senate. But he said it will be “very difficult” for the GOP to block a qualified nominee since the Democrats allowed votes on all of the conservative justices.
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