Filling Gaps On The Supreme Court

Whenever a President selects a new Supreme Court Justice, the media immediately turns to the checkoff boxes the Prez must consider: ideology, age, gender, race.  Sheralynn Ifill put togetherher own list of checkoff boxes - gaps in the current Court - and it looks a tad different than we see in other media venues.  Her list includes:

1. A person with a criminal defense background.  (To which I would add, a person with a background in criminal work at the state level.) 

2. State court judges.  (I think this would be valuable, but could be satisfied with a person who actually had a substantial state court practice.  See #1 above.)

3. Military background. (Agreed, though I'd also be pretty stoked if they found someone who'd taught in public schools for a few years.)

4. A serious liberal intellectual.  (...who's 33 years old.)

5. An African-American.  (And an Asian-American.  Seriously, can't he just nominate Goodwin Liu?)

6. A Protestant. (Come on.  If we're dreaming, why not go all out: an Atheist!)

And here are a few more one could tack on:

7.  Someone who used drugs as a kid and hasn't claimed absolution through religion.  (Compare: President 43 to President 44.)

8.  A graduate of a law school with a US News Faculty Repuation Rating lower than 4.5. (Call it the Justice Stevens seat.  Omigod...only on the Supreme Court is Northwestern Law a TTT.)

9.  A former professional athlete. (If Bob Thomas and Alan Page can be State Supremes, why not Bill Walton for the SCOTUS?  See also #7.  Yeah, I know.  He attended Stanford Law - but never graduated.  The first year has all the good stuff anyway!)

10. A blogger. (Can you say "underneath my robes"?)

H/T Kaimi Wenger

Comments

[anon]

We've already had a former pro athlete on the Supreme Court - Justice Byron White played for Pittsburgh and Detroit in the NFL.

[Michael Alexander]

I think Dan Filler means we need another proathlete on the court. Who are the candidates of former athletes would are top level attorneys?

[anon]

Steve Young has a law degree from BYU. Not sure if he's a "top level attorney," but he was a great QB.