THE TEMPTATION OF ROBERTS REDUX:

Bush Again Faces Tough High Court Choice (David G. Savage and Richard B. Schmitt, September 26, 2005, LA Times)

The diversity issue "is being overplayed by the media. I think you should take the president at his word: He wants a judicial conservative, someone who is extremely smart, has a good temperament and a reverence for the Constitution," said Leonard A. Leo, executive vice president of the conservative Federalist Society, who has been advising the White House through Roberts' nomination process.

Washington lawyer Bradford Berenson, who served in the White House counsel's office during Bush's first term, also thinks the nominee will be a true conservative.

"I would predict he will keep his promise and appoint a justice in the mold of Scalia and Thomas, a strong judicial conservative," Berenson said. "I don't buy the argument the president will pull his punches. That's not his style."

U.S. appeals court Judges J. Michael Luttig in Virginia, Michael W. McConnell in Denver and Samuel A. Alito Jr. in Philadelphia remain on the list of possible nominees.

If Bush looks for "another John Roberts," some believe, McConnell could emerge as the nominee.

He is a former University of Chicago law professor known for his scholarly interest in religion and the 1st Amendment. He was also a regular advocate before the Supreme Court before Bush named him to the U.S. Court of Appeals in Denver.

"He is a person of proven legal brilliance and judicial temperament, and he is respected by scholars on the left as well as on the right," said UCLA law professor Eugene Volokh. "He was broadly endorsed by academics when he was nominated before." Still, he added, "there's not much political upside for Bush in nominating him."

Other than a repeat of the hearings where Democrats just humiliated themselves and infuriated their activists.

Posted by Orrin Judd at September 26, 2005 8:31 AM