# Who should be the next Chief Justice? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [May 16, 2004, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-should-be-the-next-chief-justice/245491 "2004-05-16T22:50:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2004, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-should-be-the-next-chief-justice/245491/1 "2004-05-16T22:50:35Z")
Rhenquist will probably not be able to keep his duties for much longer. From the current court, I think Ruth Bader Ginsberg is probably the most qualified to be the next Chief Justice. Sandra Day O’Connor would be an interesting choice. However, age would probably disqualify her. Any other suggestions from doper-land? ---
**Author:** ![milroyj](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@milroyj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/milroyj)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2004, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-should-be-the-next-chief-justice/245491/2 "2004-05-16T23:04:37Z")
> [@dalej42](#): > > Rhenquist will probably not be able to keep his duties for much longer. From the current court, I think Ruth Bader Ginsberg is probably the most qualified to be the next Chief Justice. Sandra Day O’Connor would be an interesting choice. However, age would probably disqualify her. > > Any other suggestions from doper-land? Justice Scalia ---
**Author:** ![KSO](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@KSO](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KSO)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2004, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-should-be-the-next-chief-justice/245491/3 "2004-05-16T23:07:38Z")
I thought it went to the justice with the most seniority… ---
**Author:** ![Blalron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/35a633/32.png) [@Blalron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blalron)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2004, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-should-be-the-next-chief-justice/245491/4 "2004-05-16T23:09:30Z")
> [@milroyj](#): > > Justice Scalia You are truly scary. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2004, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-should-be-the-next-chief-justice/245491/5 "2004-05-16T23:09:47Z")
> [@KSO](#): > > I thought it went to the justice with the most seniority… The President can nominate anyone to be Chief Justice. It almost never goes to the judge with the most seniority. ---
**Author:** ![milroyj](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@milroyj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/milroyj)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2004, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-should-be-the-next-chief-justice/245491/6 "2004-05-16T23:13:21Z")
> [@Blalron](#): > > You are truly scary. Justice Thomas, then? ---
**Author:** ![Blalron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/35a633/32.png) [@Blalron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blalron)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2004, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-should-be-the-next-chief-justice/245491/7 "2004-05-16T23:43:49Z")
> [@milroyj](#): > > Justice Thomas, then? Justice O’Conner is a sensible moderate, and a woman to boot. She’d be good. ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2004, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-should-be-the-next-chief-justice/245491/8 "2004-05-16T23:57:15Z")
How often is a sitting Justice made Chief when the current Chief retires? I don’t recall it happening. ---
**Author:** ![milroyj](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@milroyj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/milroyj)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2004, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-should-be-the-next-chief-justice/245491/9 "2004-05-16T23:58:52Z")
> [@Blalron](#): > > Justice O’Conner is a sensible moderate, and a woman to boot. She’d be good. I agree, she did have the common sense that God gave a goose to “vote” for President Bush! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Blalron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/35a633/32.png) [@Blalron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blalron)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2004, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-should-be-the-next-chief-justice/245491/10 "2004-05-17T00:01:00Z")
> [@David Simmons](#): > > How often is a sitting Justice made Chief when the current Chief retires? > > I don’t recall it happening. It happened with the current one. Rehnquist was promoted from Justice to Chief Justice back in 1986 ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2004, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-should-be-the-next-chief-justice/245491/11 "2004-05-17T00:20:22Z")
> [@Blalron](#): > > It happened with the current one. Rehnquist was promoted from Justice to Chief Justice back in 1986 Another strike against Ronald W. Reagan! I also found: Harlan Stone, Earl Warren, and Eward White. It isn’t a common practice but it certainly isn’t all that rare. ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2004, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-should-be-the-next-chief-justice/245491/12 "2004-05-17T00:22:45Z")
Earl Warren was governor of California before becoming Chief Justice on a recess appointment. He was later confirmed by the Senate. Warren had never been a judge before becoming Chief Justice. Any sitting member of the court who was named Chief would be filibustered. Unless Bush wanted to start the mother of all political battles, Scalia and Thomas will be Associates until they die or leave the court. ---
**Author:** ![raindog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@raindog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raindog)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2004, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-should-be-the-next-chief-justice/245491/13 "2004-05-17T03:02:45Z")
Robert Bork 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Moto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2004, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-should-be-the-next-chief-justice/245491/14 "2004-05-17T03:32:43Z")
Bork, though an excellent choice, wouldn’t fly for many obvious reasons. For one thing, he’s probably too old as well. ---
**Author:** ![Sevastopol](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cdc98d/32.png) [@Sevastopol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sevastopol)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2004, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-should-be-the-next-chief-justice/245491/15 "2004-05-17T04:03:37Z")
An aside, I hear rumors Scalia is considering leaving the court because he’s realizing his ‘conservative’ views of the law’s role and government are never going to command a majority. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Moto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2004, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-should-be-the-next-chief-justice/245491/16 "2004-05-17T04:12:11Z")
Scalia often votes in the majority, so I’d just assign this to idle bs, myself. ---
**Author:** ![capacitor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e47774/32.png) [@capacitor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capacitor)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2004, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-should-be-the-next-chief-justice/245491/17 "2004-05-17T04:15:22Z")
If Scalia writes in a 9-0 decision to make Cheney open up the books about energy policy, after all teh turmoil, then he is a shoo-in. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2004, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-should-be-the-next-chief-justice/245491/18 "2004-05-17T04:23:30Z")
If the Court opens up on Bush’s watch, Bush has every reason to nominate Scalia – he’d be very pleasing to social conservatives, an easy sop to their feelings while not directly offending the fiscal conservatives. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Cheatem\_Undhow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/13edae/32.png) [@Dewey\_Cheatem\_Undhow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Cheatem_Undhow)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2004, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-should-be-the-next-chief-justice/245491/19 "2004-05-17T14:24:47Z")
The Chief Justiceship is more of an honorary title than anything else – he controls some of the court’s administrative functions, and ostensibly assigns authorship for opinion-writing when he is part of the majority, but there’s no significant real additional power to the position that an ordinary Justice does not already possess. Given history, it’s likely that if Rhenquist steps down, an entirely new person will be appointed Chief. The only candidate on the current court I see is Scalia, and that only as a way to honor his long service on the bench (and his ideological closeness to Bush), which is much the same reason Reagan gave the title to Rhenquist. But even that is unlikely to happen; Bush critics, having already demonized Scalia to the nth degree, would seize on such a move as “further radicalizing the court” (even though it would not actually change the balance of power in any way), and really, Bush doesn’t need that kind of a hassle. Political expediency will make it far easier to just find a new person. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2004, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-should-be-the-next-chief-justice/245491/20 "2004-05-17T14:38:15Z")
Gotta admit I’ve always found that weird. Just appointing a chief justice from outside the current group. I always thought it would make more sense to let the justices pick the chief justice and allow the president to nominate the associate judges when opening occur. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-should-be-the-next-chief-justice/245491.md?page=2)