# President Kerry's Supreme Court nominee **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [July 22, 2005, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-kerrys-supreme-court-nominee/313630 "2005-07-22T13:50:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2005, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-kerrys-supreme-court-nominee/313630/1 "2005-07-22T13:50:12Z")
Ah, wouldn’t it be nice…? \*WASHINGTON (AP, July 20) - President John Kerry walked from the Oval Office today, and introduced his first pick for the nation’s highest court to the nation as she stood by his side. “Judge Amalya Lyle Kearse will make America proud when she takes her seat on the Supreme Court,” Kerry said. “I call upon the members of the Senate to exercise their constitutional function, and advise and swiftly consent to her nomination, as I am confident they will.” Kearse, in brief remarks in the Rose Garden, said, “I’m deeply honored to receive this appointment, and I’ll do my best to prove worthy of the trust and confidence placed in me. I thank the President and his staff for their thoughtful consideration… I have always believed that the law is a noble calling, and the Supreme Court is an integral and hallowed institution of the American system of justice. I look forward to soon meeting with senators and answering their questions, consistent with my ethical obligation not to prejudge matters that may later come before me.” Judge Kearse was born in Vauxhall, N.J. in 1937; she turned 68 on June 11. Her father was a postmaster and her mother was a doctor. A philosophy major and 1959 graduate of Wellesley, she was the only black woman in her law school class at the University of Michigan. She graduated cum laude in 1962, and entered private practice in New York City. She quickly rose to become a partner of the respected Wall Street firm of Hughes, Hubbard & Reed. In 1979, President Jimmy Carter appointed Kearse to the 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in New York City. She was the first woman on the court, and the second black judge (after Thurgood Marshall, before his own elevation to the Supreme Court). She has served as chief judge of the court, and is considered a courtly, low-key, center-left jurist. Her name has been on earlier Supreme Court shortlists, and President Bill Clinton considered her as a prospective Attorney General in 1992 before eventually choosing Janet Reno. Kearse took senior status in 2002, but White House sources say she is in excellent health and, if confirmed, would be able to serve on the Supreme Court for many years to come. “She’s a great judge, a very smart and capable jurist, and let’s face it: it’s a two-fer: a black and a woman,” said one White House strategist, who asked not to be named. “It’s a legal and political slam-dunk.” Off the bench, Judge Kearse is a world-class bridge player, and a five-time national champion. Reaction on Capitol Hill was generally positive. Democrats praised the selection, while some Republicans took a “wait and see” attitude. However, Sen. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), the Senate majority leader, and Senate Judiciary Committee chair Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) promised hearings in time for Kearse, if confirmed, to take the bench when the Supreme Court begins its fall term on Oct. 3…\* Who do you think President Kerry would/should nominate? ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2005, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-kerrys-supreme-court-nominee/313630/2 "2005-07-22T22:55:03Z")
The idea that Kerry’s nominee would get a “let’s-wait-and-see” from the Republicans is laughably naive. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2005, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-kerrys-supreme-court-nominee/313630/3 "2005-07-22T23:26:28Z")
Washington (AP, July 21) - _The Republican-led Senate took a brief break in their investigation of President Kerry’s Swift-Boat activities, now in its fourteenth month, to laugh and slap a big red REJECT stamp on his proposed Supreme Court nominee…_ ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2005, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-kerrys-supreme-court-nominee/313630/4 "2005-07-22T23:32:57Z")
> [@Bryan Ekers](#): > > to laugh and slap a big red REJECT stamp on his proposed Supreme Court nominee…\* Hillary Rodham Clinton. In a swift reaction to the republican’s unprecedented Easter Sunday session, democrats on Monday reintroduced Ms. Clinton, overcame the republican filibuster and sent the new judge to the supreme court on a party-line vote of 67-33. ---
**Author:** ![middleman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9a140/32.png) [@middleman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/middleman)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2005, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-kerrys-supreme-court-nominee/313630/5 "2005-07-23T01:05:13Z")
Reuters News Service: > [@](#): > > After failing to find a sitting judge that the GOP would confirm, President Kerry put forth his 37th nominee, Judge Reinhold. Despite some GOP praise, the confirmation battle of the 48 year old Hollywood journeyman is expected to be contentious. > > Senator Lincoln Chafee immediatley praised Reinhold’s law enforcement record from his portrayal of Det. William ‘Billy’ Rosewood in the _Beverly Hills Cop_ trilogy. > > Senator Rick Santorum, however, immediately attacked Reinhold. “I don’t want to live in Judge Reinhold’s America, where a high school senior can just take his little sister, Jennifer Jason Leigh, to an abortion clinic!” said the fiery conservative from Pennsylvania. “If we confirm Judge Reinhold, you can count on a LOT of _Fast Times at Ridgemont High!_” ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2005, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-kerrys-supreme-court-nominee/313630/6 "2005-07-23T05:16:21Z")
_The Kearse nomination put to rest speculation that Attorney General Lis Wiehl was on Mr. Kerry’s “shortlist” for the seat. Wiehl, 43, would have been the youngest nominee to the high court since Clarence Thomas in 1987. The former Clinton defense team member said she was “not looking for higher office until I’ve done my best to remedy the damage done to civil liberties by the Ashcroft-Gonzalez Justice Departments.”_ ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2005, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-kerrys-supreme-court-nominee/313630/7 "2005-07-25T15:46:00Z")
Tell me more about Lis Wiehl, please. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2005, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-kerrys-supreme-court-nominee/313630/8 "2005-07-26T13:36:20Z")
> [@rjung](#): > > The idea that Kerry’s nominee would get a “let’s-wait-and-see” from the Republicans is laughably naive. 🙂 Yeah, I mean, look at the huge fight and filibuster the Republicans gave to Breyer and Ginsburg. ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2005, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/president-kerrys-supreme-court-nominee/313630/9 "2005-07-26T19:43:48Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > Yeah, I mean, look at the huge fight and filibuster the Republicans gave to Breyer and Ginsburg. That’s _so_ ten years ago.