Superior Selection Process for Sonia Sotomayor

The fascinating inside selection process for Sonia Sotomayor was detailed in the lead article in today’s New York Times. It began even before the resignation of David Souter.

Just a few weeks after President Obama’s election, he got together with a group of people to start working on the process. The goal was to create a short list of candidates before a vacancy occurred.

The early start to the process avoided some of the major problems in previous Supreme Court nominations. Each potential candidate was thoroughly vetted. The White House had dossiers on all of them before Souter announced his decison, and shortly afterward, the White House had 60-to-70 page memos on each.

Leaders from liberal groups were summoned to the White House and warned not to float names or lobby through the press because it would be “counterproductive.”

President Obama also insisted on reading original writings from each candidate. And as a professor of constitutional law, he was thoroughly qualified to do so.

Secrecy was also crucial to the process. Meetings with Supreme Court candidates were even concealed on President Obama’s internal schedule. 

It’s interesting that Judge Sotomayor has no clear decisions on abortion. No matter what your position on this issue, that fact should decrease the polarization that this issue typically engenders.