TWO BIRDS WITH ONE STONE

California justice could be poised to fill next top U.S. court vacancy (David Kravets, June 14, 2003, AP)

It's not hard to understand why California Supreme Court Justice Janice Rogers Brown is often mentioned as a potential nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court.

In many ways, her line of thinking mirrors both the Bush administration and recent U.S. Supreme Court precedent. A Christian black woman from the segregated South, Brown supports limits on abortion rights and corporate liability, routinely upholds the death penalty and opposes affirmative action.

As speculation surges about the rumored retirements of Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justice Sandra Day O'Connor this summer, talk of potential replacements is on the rise, and Brown is among them.

"She has some real fans in Washington who are very impressed with what she's done on the California Supreme Court," said Gerald Uelman, a Santa Clara University School of Law scholar who follows both courts.

The first black woman to sit on California's highest court, Brown, 54, is one of the most conservative of the seven justices and a prolific opinion writer, authoring more opinions and dissents last term than any other justice. [...]

Some scholars suggest Bush would have a struggle to confirm Brown, given Senate Democrats' recent filibusters on two conservative federal appellate nominees.

"Her name is being circulated," said Erwin Chemerinsky, a University of Southern California legal scholar who has taken several cases to the U.S. Supreme Court this term.

"I think the question is: Does the Bush administration want to have a confirmation fight?"

Want a fight? What could be better in purely political terms than for President Bush to get to go before the cameras and defend the honor of the first black woman nominee to the Supreme Court? Posted by Orrin Judd at June 14, 2003 10:14 AM