Sen. Patrick Leahy is warning President Bush not to appoint conservatives to the Court and, indeed, wants to have a say in choosing the nominee. While having the president get tacit approval from the Senate–including the minority party–before announcing a nominee turns the traditional process on its head, it strikes me as being within the spirit of advice and consent as outlined in the Constitution. And, given the practicalities of a nearly evenly divided Senate and Supreme Court, I believe something like this will indeed happen.
(Hat tip: Krempasky)
An aside: The same story has this little snippet toward the bottom:
“The courts are the one part of government people yearn to believe is free of politics,” Mr. Leahy said. “That’s why the Florida case shook people so much,” a reference to the Supreme Court ruling in Bush v. Gore that resulted in Mr. Bush’s presidency.
Aaaaaaaaaaaah. This is getting really old. Mr. Bush getting more electoral votes than Mr. Gore is what “resulted in Mr. Bush’s presidency.” That would have been the case even had the Supremes decided the other way: Bush won the vote in Florida, the decisive state, by a very small number of votes. The first count. The second count. And every recount. Including the one done by the NYT and other media outlets. I’m so glad there’s no liberal bias at the NYT.
