Announcement Today?

The Washington Post is reporting that the president will likely announce his next Supreme Court nominee today, October 31. The possible nominees are Judge Samuel Alito of the Third Circuit, Judge J. Michael Luttig of the Fourth Circuit, and Judge Alice Batchelder of the Sixth Circuit. Do not be surprised however if the nominee is someone whose name has not been circulating through speculative circles.

If you had asked me who my favorite would have been yesterday I would have told you Judge Luttig with Judge Alito as a close second. Erick Erickson has commented however that there are concerns within some circles that Judge Luttig might possibly "grow in office", the infamous description the media uses for judges and politicians who have grown more liberal and less conservative while in office. I was surprised to learn this; Judge Luttig has had an extensive tenure on the federal bench with a consistent originalist/textualist record. Since Justice O’Connor announced her retirement last July I had favored Judge Luttig precisely because of the assumption that he was the least likely to change his spots if he were to become Justice Luttig.

If however there are legitimate concerns that Judge Luttig might indeed change over time once on the Court than Judge Alito should be the choice, as indications are that he very well might be. Judge Alito is a jurist of the deepest humility and knowledge of the constitution and his practice of judicial restraint is exactly the type of jurisprudence the Supreme Court sorely lacks at the moment.

Irregardless, the three possible nominees all have distinguished records on the bench and I'm sure all three will garner the widespread support of national conservatives that the Miers nomination failed to. Though there is little doubt that Democrats will fight tooth-and-nail against the nominee, whomever it is (they would have done that to Ms. Miers as well if conservatives hadn’t done their jobs for them), I'll hold off on commenting on the political dynamics of the nomination and confirmation process until the actual nominee is announced. I’ll simply say that any one of the three would be an excellent choice and will attract the type of overwhelming conservative support requisite in getting that nominee confirmed and on the Supreme Court.