New SCOTUS nominee

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by Kevin

She's as qualified as anyone and she's replacing Brennan.

You mean Stevens? Or do you mean philosophical successor?

I wonder whether we'll ever see an attorney who has been in solo practice, who didn't graduate from an Ivy League school appointed to the SCOTUS. Looking back at the maelstrom that followed Miers' nomination, I doubt it.

Solo practice, not likely. Not the right "track," I'm afraid. As for Ivy League, Stevens went to Northwestern Law School, and O'Conner went to Stanford. Not exactly Podunk College of Law, but not Ivy League either.

OT: Are you and your family okay after the storms in OKC?

[Kevin]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

You mean Stevens? Or do you mean philosophical successor?

Pardon my cerebral flatulence.

Solo practice, not likely. Not the right "track," I'm afraid. As for Ivy League, Stevens went to Northwestern Law School, and O'Conner went to Stanford. Not exactly Podunk College of Law, but not Ivy League either.

Probably so.

OT: Are you and your family okay after the storms in OKC?

Just fine. There was some damage 5-10 miles away from us, but we were unscathed. Didn't even see the softball-sized (wtf) hail. Luckily, most of the storm hit in the middle of nowhere out near southeastern Oklahoma, which is basically a godforsaken place where the chief exports are meth and marijuana. Any damage down there probably qualifies as blight removal. Any crop damage down there is probably uninsurable.

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by Kevin

Just fine. There was some damage 5-10 miles away from us, but we were unscathed. Didn't even see the softball-sized (wtf) hail.

Glad to hear it!

OT2: In light of your wistfulness about whether anyone will ever reach SCOTUS through other than the usual paths, may I highly recommend (to you and anyone else) Supreme Courtship by Christopher Buckley. Blurb:

In bestselling author Christopher Buckley's hilarious novel, the President of the United States, ticked off at the Senate for rejecting his nominees, decides to get even by nominating America's most popular TV judge to the Supreme Court.

President Donald Vanderdamp is having a hell of a time getting his nominees onto the Supreme Court. After one nominee is rejected for insufficiently appreciating To Kill a Mockingbird, the president chooses someone so beloved by voters that the Senate won't have the nerve to reject her--Judge Pepper Cartwright, star of the nation's most popular reality show. Will Pepper, a vivacious Texan, survive a Senate confirmation battle? Will becoming one of the most powerful women in the world ruin her love life? Soon, Pepper finds herself in the middle of a constitutional crisis, a presidential reelection campaign that the president is determined to lose, and oral arguments of a romantic nature. Supreme Courtship is another classic Christopher Buckley comedy about the Washington institutions most deserving of ridicule.