Obama To Meet With Senate Leaders Wednesday On SCOTUS Schedule

Senate leadership, including respective heads of the Senate Judiciary Committee, will meet with President Obama on Wednesday to discuss the outlines and timing of the upcoming Supreme Court nomination and confirmation process.

Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), told the Huffington Post on Tuesday that he will be swinging by 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue tomorrow with Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Ranking Judiciary member Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.)

The president, Leahy said, "is going to get our advice on the Supreme Court, and if we have any names we'd like to suggest to him. He did this before with Justice Sotomayor. But since I've been here -- most certainly since I've been either chairman or ranking member -- every president, Republican or Democrat, has done it that way."

On the docket, specifically, will be discussion on the confirmation schedule for the nominee to replace retiring Justice John Paul Stevens. "I'm going to argue the sooner the better because we want to get it done before the August recessk, if possible, so they can get settled in," said Leahy.

"I think the best precedent for time, because this is [to replace] Justice Stevens, would be his amount of time [for confirmation]: two and a half weeks," the senator added. "But I have a feeling that might not be acceptable. So I would say we had a Republican and a Democrat in exactly the same amount of time -- Justice Roberts and Justice Sotomayor -- so I think that's what it's going to be, roughly that."

In addition, an administration official tells the Huffington Post, the group will likely discuss their preferences for nominees, what judicial issues they think will be relevant to the confirmation proceedings, and a timeline for when an actual nominee will be named. A meeting with remaining members of the Judiciary Committee is expected to take place sometime following Wednesday's gathering.