Supreme Court Short List: Who Will Be America's Next Top Conservative Justice?

At the Fox News presidential debate in Iowa last week, moderator Megyn Kelly asked the Republican candidates to name their favorite Supreme Court justice. The answers were predictable: conservative stalwarts Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, John Roberts and Samuel Alito.

If elected, one of the candidates who volunteered those names (only Ron Paul refused to play ball with Kelly) may have the opportunity to nominate another justice to that list.

The most likely candidate for retirement is liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, now 78 years old and recently experiencing a cancer scare, a fainting spell and the loss of her husband. If she chooses to leave -- or, for that matter, 73-year-old swing vote Anthony Kennedy -- a Republican presidential victory in 2012 could lead to the Court's first solid conservative majority since the 1920s.

The GOP has a deep bench of possible nominees thanks to George W. Bush's commitment to filling his administration and the federal courts with men and women culled from the ranks of the Federalist Society.

The Huffington Post asked leading figures in the conservative legal world who might be on a Republican president's Supreme Court short list. Here are the top five names that kept coming up:

Comments

[Skeetshooter]

09:33 PM on 01/01/2012

Other than Sutton, none of these jokers passes the smell test. Then we look, poke, listen...etc.

[litigatrix]

04:32 PM on 04/19/2012

Other than one judge who would uphold your preferred policy preferences you mean. Your comment doesn't pass the laugh test.

[glpede48]

03:51 PM on 12/30/2011

This is where a presidents legacy really hangs on. We are stuck with some very conservative activist judges on the court, the legacy of "W" will be there for decades. I shudder at the thought of retirements during the current political environment, we could end up with 700 club mentality justices, this would throw our Republic back into the dark ages.

[standridgedar]

07:58 AM on 12/26/2011

There are no liberals on the US Supreme Court. Breyer, Kagan, Sotomayor, and Ginsburg are centrists. Alito and Kennedy are conservatives. Scalia, Thomas, and Roberts are ultra right wing conservatives.

The conservatives, especially the ultra right wing, are opposed to democracy. They believe in the preservation of privilege for the plutocracy that runs this country. ( See the Citizens United case )

[kenofksa]

04:15 PM on 12/26/2011

After reading your post, I began to laugh to think that anyone would think of Breyer, Kagan, Sotomayor and Ginsburg as Centrist, then laughter stopped as I suddenly realize that you actually believe that your statement has validity.

[standridgedar]

09:12 PM on 12/26/2011

It is valid. Liberals on the court were people like Douglas, Brennan, Black, and Warren. The kinds of decisions they reached ( e.g. Brown v BoE, Gideon, Roe, etc ) would never be reached by the milktoast "liberals" on the Court today.

If the current guys had been on the Court in the 50's, there would still be segregation in "proud Texas conservative patriot" public schools. ( Oh, I guess you would like that?)

[karim1]

11:45 AM on 12/31/2011

It seems that conservatives are constantly trying to paint moderate liberals as "far-left" people because they want to push the political spectrum further to the right. Obvious political tactic. Standridgedar has a point. If there was a real far-left person in the Supreme Court, you guys would be trying to get them impeached yet Clarence Thomas goes untouched. It seems that neo-cons have no problem with hypocrisy.

[phill273]

09:43 PM on 01/01/2012

Thomas is the only true conservative on the US Supreme Court.

[standridgedar]

10:18 PM on 01/01/2012

I am curious to know why you say that.

[eyeforeye42]

05:04 AM on 12/26/2011

I want someone that is fair and balanced and does not have a conservative or liberal bent. Anyone less than a moderate bent should not be considered for that office.

[phill273]

09:44 PM on 01/01/2012

There's no such thing as a moderate. People either believe in original intent or a 'living constitution."

[Mark Morrow]

01:19 PM on 12/25/2011

All the more reason to make sure that President Obama is re-elected in 2012 and the Democrats hold the Senate.

[lw1]

08:09 PM on 12/26/2011

All the more reason to work hard for that goal!

[Dan Jack]

06:23 AM on 12/25/2011

This is a moot question as of now, Obama is not going to to nominate a conservitive jugde to the bench? What are u thinking???????

[belgarde1]

12:59 PM on 12/24/2011

I thought Bush was not our President anymore and yet who do we see in the picture? We do not need ANOTHER republican placed in office of any kind. I ALWAYS get bashed when I mention the word BUSH. I wrote a comment about the soldier pawning his Purple Heart. My point was that I had wrote a comment a couple of days prior to that story on how BECAUSE Bush was elected and immediately went into war and that cost us trillions which we are all paying for now that the families are given medals that at most they can only pawn for a few bucks. That everyone blames Obama for this econmical disaster we are in. But I was bashed that I didn't know my history Bush didn't start the war (I don't remember Clinton starting it I remeber times of glory and jobs with Clinton) That Bush didn't create this mess Obama did. People are fools if they believe that. So seeing Bush's picture behind this man just blows my mind I WILL NOT vote Republican. We might as well dig a hole and climb in if another is elected because we are through. Oh and as far as my spelling I have a tumor growing in my head and I like many americans I don't have medical insurance and I don't know how to use a computer real well I do my best.

[lw1]

08:11 PM on 12/26/2011

The dread disease bushnesia is far too widespread.

[LILLYPUTT]

05:41 AM on 02/02/2012

Hello belgarde1, great post.It doesn't matter if someone makes mistakes in their spelling,what matters more to me is what they have written and what is in their hearts.If it wasn't for these conservatives, you would have the insurance you need so much for your condition.They will be remembered in history, as a bunch of looters and thieves who reamed and raped this country, barren and dry.Unbreathable air and polluted water.Ect, ect, ect.Their legacy will not be pretty.I hope that everything turns out alright for you, i wish you the best.

[OneForCountry]

08:59 PM on 12/23/2011

Conserves support the US Constitution. Why wouldn't anyone support a conserve judge? Ans: There are some among us who feel above the law; notably Left wingers who believe it's their right as, self professed elites, to make the law.

[shaggyct]

03:43 AM on 12/24/2011

We all support the U.S. Constitution. But you cons think that only YOUR interpretation of the constitution is the true and righteous one, and anybody who disagrees with your interpretation is by definition an activist. If the Constitution were a black and white set of rules with no ambiguity, then there would be no need for a Supreme Court, and legal scholars wouldn't have spent the last couple of centuries debating constitutional law.

[rsargerod]

04:06 AM on 12/24/2011

Faved! it couldn't be said any betteer.

[Helloise]

08:34 AM on 12/24/2011

Thanks, shaggy, it's always astonished me that these people don't understand that. What the heck do they think happens in courts if not competing interpretations of the law? Apparently they believe in the Scalia dog and pony show, "channeling the Founders".

[lw1]

08:13 PM on 12/26/2011

The conservative SCOTUS judges have gone against the will of the framers of the constitution. "When American colonists declared independence from England in 1776, they also freed themselves from control by English corporations that extracted their wealth and dominated trade. After fighting a revolution to end this exploitation, our country's founders retained a healthy fear of corporate power and wisely limited corporations exclusively to a business role. Corporations were forbidden from attempting to influence elections, public policy, and other realms of civic society."
http://www.reclaimdemocracy.org/corporate_accountability/history_corporations_us.html

[CharlieVer]

11:07 PM on 12/22/2011

No conservative majority since the 1920s? How about the Right Nows... and for a very long time, as evidenced in part by Gore v. Bush.

[Don Glenn]

02:12 PM on 12/22/2011

We will continue to lose our sovereignty as a nation to a corporate plutocrat-icy if another republican gets appointed to the SCOTUS. The reason Rome fell was they got drunk on power. Vote Democratic, the most important vote you will ever make will be this election cycle.

[hopingheart]

01:06 PM on 12/22/2011

Everyone who is not a hard right wingnut, including moderate Republicans:
We simply must put aside our disappointments with Obama and vote him back into office or we'll be in a tailspin to the right that we may never recover from.

[Chase Price]

01:03 PM on 12/22/2011

There ain't going to be no next time for the Rebooblican Party.

[Zephersand]

01:02 PM on 12/22/2011

Well if America votes for the Republicans this election we deserve to end the American Experiment.

RESULTS:
1) takes men of great character to establish
2) requires a public committed to freedom
3) must adhere to constitution to limit government changes
4) must insure rights of its citizens and minorities
5) requires civilian control of the military

WEAKNESSES
1) majority rule neglecting minority rights
2) economic pressures on electorate
3) any of the three branches of power usurping the powers of another branch
4) the representation being held by only one race, religion, or class without regard for the other races religions or classes.

If the Republicans are elected Wealth will be in command of our government using their money to advertise and promote the candidates of their choice. The government is already held by the white christian rich but will have less respect of the minorities if the less tolerant Republicans are in control. And with the Republicans in power conservative replacements to the Supreme Court will remove balance to the judicial branch which will then legislate without temper for all conservative issues without regard to the liberal class.
The American Experiment will be over with a Rich minority taking over the control of government without regard for the poor or middle classes. America will become an oligarchy.

[Tsckey]

01:25 PM on 12/22/2011

Your points cannot be over stressed. What is so often overlooked is that the American experiment in self government was conceived and constituted as an alternate to the prevailing feudal cultures and forms of government dominating England and Europe at the time. The presence of a wealthy ruling class was not the model the Founders intended to recreate on these shores. Instead they envisioned an entirely more pedestrian society in which all were equal under the law and each, according to their industry and natural abilities, could make a life for themselves unfettered by class or condition of birth. The new right has abandoned all but lip service to these principles and in the process elevated the love of wealth to the same station it held prior to the creation of our nation. It seeks no less than to "correct" the mistakes of the Framers and to return wealth and its concomitant power to its former, historical position of social, economic,and political control. Control of the Supreme Court is a critical strategic element of the conservative movement's design to overthrow our government.

Obama must win the election. Not so much on his own merits, though he is head and shoulders above his putative opponents, but to keep the power to appoint the next Supreme Court justices out of the hands of the New Feudalists on the right.

[lw1]

08:15 PM on 12/26/2011

Mussolini said, "Fascism should be more accurately called corporatism, because it is a merger of state and corporate power."

[Blackwing]

12:47 PM on 12/22/2011

Isn't Rush Limbaugh the leading conservative judge in the USA? They all take their orders from him.

[ducebiggs]

12:35 PM on 12/22/2011

WE DO NOT NEED ANY MORE PERIOD......