Supreme Court
Announcement Tonight,
White House Says
By Peter Baker, Fred
Barbash and William Branigin,
Washingtonpost.com
from the Web, July 19, 2005
Washington, DC -- The
president is set to announce his Supreme Court nominee tonight at 9 p.m. ET,
according to spokesman Scott McClellan.
The name of the nominee remained unknown. While many Republican
strategists are anticipating that his choice will be Judge Edith Clement of the
5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, other observers were cautious about
speculating.
The leading female contenders, according to GOP strategists, are Clement, Judges
Edith Hollan Jones, and Priscilla R. Owen, all of the U.S. Court of Appeals for
the 5th Circuit; Janice Rogers Brown of the D.C. Circuit; and Karen Williams of
the 4th Circuit.
Jones, admired by many conservatives as a "strict constructionist" in
interpreting the Constitution, was the runner-up to David H. Souter when
President George H.W. Bush made his first court appointment in 1990. She
has expressed strong opposition to Roe v. Wade , the decision establishing a
constitutional right to abortion.
Owen and Brown were just confirmed to the appellate bench, after long Democratic
delays, as part of a May deal to end a partisan showdown over judicial
filibusters. If Bush picks either of them, strategists said, the White
House will argue that the Senate could hardly reject the nomination months after
approving the same person for a lower-court post. But such a move would be
seen as provocative by Democrats who reluctantly dropped their filibuster
against those two.
"I'm comfortable where we are in the process," the president said shortly after
noon, during an appearance with Australian Prime Minister John Howard.
"The best way to put it is I'll let you know when I'm ready to tell you who it
is."
"I've heard nothing official, but it certainly does look like it," said a
Republican strategist with close ties to the White House. "The word has
gone out that we should be ready today. And the signs are all pointing to
Clement."
The subject of most speculation today was Clement, 57, who served for 10 years
on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana before being
elevated.
She was nominated to that court by President George H. W. Bush in October 1991
and also promptly confirmed by the Senate. In 2001 she served as chief
judge of the District Court.
Clement was born in Birmingham, Ala., and earned a bachelor's degree from the
University of Alabama in 1969 and a law degree from the Tulane University School
of Law in 1972.
She was a law clerk for U.S. District Court Judge Herbert W. Christenberry in
the Eastern District of Louisiana.
From 1975 until she became a judge in 1991, Clement worked in private practice
in New Orleans, specializing in maritime law. She represented oil
companies, insurance companies and the marine services industry in cases before
federal courts.
She is a member of the Federalist Society, a conservative legal organization.
Clement has a reputation among lawyers as a no-nonsense judge who insists on
professionalism in her courtroom and is strict about deadlines. While she
is known as a judicial conservative, she also has been known to lean toward the
defense in civil cases.
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