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Showing Original Post only (View all)What Robert Reich says about Judge Sri Srinivasan on Facebook. [View all]
Reich's Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RBReich/?fref=nf
My mole in the White House tells me Obama will nominate 46-year-old Judge Sri Srinivasan, an Indian-American jurist who Obama nominated in 2013 to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit -- and the Senate confirmed unanimously. Having confirmed him unanimously just three years ago, it would be difficult (but hardly impossible) for Republicans to oppose him now. (Twelve former Solicitors General, including Republican notables as Paul Clement and Kenneth Starr had endorsed his confirmation. Moreover, the D.C. Circuit has long been a Supreme Court farm team Scalia himself, along with John Roberts, Clarence Thomas, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg were judges there before ascending to the Supreme Court.)
But is Srinivasan progressive? He had been Obamas principal Deputy Solicitor General before the nomination, arguing Supreme Court cases in support of affirmative action and against Indianas restrictive voter ID law, for example. But this record doesnt prove much. (Having once worked as an assistant Solicitor General, I know the inhabitants of that office will argue whatever halfway respectable arguments the Justice Department and, indirectly, the President, wants made.)
Before the Obama administration, Srinivasan worked for five years in George W. Bushs Justice Department. Prior to that, as an attorney in the private firm of O'Melveny & Myers, he defended Exxon Mobil in a lawsuit brought by Indonesians who accused the companys security forces of torture, murder, and other violations against their people; successfully represented a newspaper that fired its employees for unionizing; and defended Enrons former CEO, Jeffrey Skilling, later convicted for financial fraud. But in these instances, too, it could be argued he was just representing clients. Another clue: After graduating Stanford Law School in 1995, Srinivasan clerked for two Republican-appointed jurists Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III, and Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor both of whom were considered moderate.
Since he became a judge on the D.C. Circuit, he hasnt tipped his hand. But I discovered one morsel of information that might interest you: In 2000, he worked on Al Gores legal team in the infamous Supreme Court case of Bush v. Gore.
One more paragraph at Facebook.
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Sri Srinivasan has a relatively good chance at being confirmed, if nominated, because he was confirmed 97-0 by the Senate in 2013 to current federal judgeship.
Srinivasan appears to be moderate rather than liberal and has some prior professional work for the darkside.