The New Supreme Court Nominee
Some factoids about Luttig...
- Law clerk to Scalia and Burger.
- Assistant Counsel in the Reagan Administration.
- Wrote the opinion for the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in ruling that President Bush has the authority to detain Jose Padilla without charges.
- His father was fatally shot in 1994 in a carjacking by juvenile offender Napoleon Beazley. Beazley was later executed in a controversial case which reached up to and split the Supreme Court by a vote of 3-3 (Justice Antonin Scalia recused himself from the decision, as Luttig had clerked for him; Justices David Souter and Clarence Thomas recused themselves from the decision, as Luttig had led the Bush (41) Administration's effort to gain Senate confirmation for Souter and Thomas to the Supreme Court).
- Regarded as a staunch federalist in the mold of Justices Scalia and Thomas.
- Ruled in favor of Virginia's ban on partial birth abortions.
- Ruled in favor of allowing states to require teenagers to notify a parent before having an abortion.
- Said, "There is no such thing as good or defensible judicial activism. All activism is in defiance of law -- 'law' that is defined as the politics of the people, not the politics of individual, unelected, life-tenured judges." (during a speech to a liberal group no less)
- First federal appellate judge to rule that inmates have a constitutional right to post-conviction DNA testing to try to prove their innocence, calling it "a matter of basic fairness."
- Granted protection to a female college football kicker under Title IX.
This nomination should rally conservatives...
UPDATE: I was wrong about the pick... but right about the rally!
Others: Michelle has a good roundup. Steve goes out on a limb and says it will be Brown. - I sure hope he's right. Not only is she highly qualified, but nominating the first black woman to the SCOTUS in the shadow of memorials to Rosa Parks would put Democrats in a quandry.