Judicial nominations have been moving at a snail’s pace, and of course, Republicans have blocked the president every step of the way. The courts have been overloaded, backed up, cannot function properly, and so they are unable to handle cases as judges are unavailable to preside over court proceedings. Trying to get your day in court has become as challenging as passing Democratic legislation in our current Congress.
To make matters worse, many Bush judges are already in place, which explains so many decisions that make Progressive heads explode.
Which brings us to the good news and bad news.
The good news: President Obama has found himself a judicial nominee that appeals to Republicans.
The bad news: President Obama has found himself a judicial nominee that appeals to Republicans.
President Obama, who has seen court nominees run into Republican roadblocks, may have found a winning strategy for putting a judge on the powerful U.S. appeals court here: He chose a highly regarded corporate lawyer whose resume suggests he could have been a Republican nominee.
Sri Srinivasan, 46, was a law clerk for two Republican-appointed judges after graduating from Stanford University, and he worked in the George W. Bush Justice Department for five years before joining the Obama team as deputy U.S. solicitor general.
This man, per the Times, is likely to be confirmed. Bush’s guy. From the Bush Justice Department, which, by the way, is an oxymoron.
More bad news: Senator Ted Cruz likes him. He and Srinivasan were law clerks in Virginia and at the Supreme Court together.
More good news: He would be the first South Asian native to serve on a U.S. appeals court.
More bad news: He could be a leading candidate for the Supreme Court if and when a vacancy opens up.
More good news: He’s a good listener and open-minded, per a colleague.
More bad news:
Liberal activists, unions and human rights groups refused to support him. Most of them say they decided to remain silent, not wanting to upset the White House or stand in the way of an Obama nominee…. The strongest opposition to Srinivasan has come from human rights advocates who have sued multinational corporations.
Are you getting nervous yet? No? Let me nudge you along:
Marco Simons, legal director for Earth Rights International, wrote to the Senate Judiciary Committee complaining of Srinivasan’s “propensity for pro-corporate, anti-human rights judicial activism.” As a lawyer in Washington, Srinivasan has “built a practice around defending powerful multinational companies against allegations of human rights abuses such as war crimes, torture and summary execution,” Simons wrote… “The new definition of a consensus nominee is someone who the Republicans like and the Democrats can stomach because they don’t want to defy the president,” he said.
There’s your “liberal” president, GOP.
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