Bench Memos

“Consensus”, “uniting” nominees

I just finished listening to Sen. Leahy, explaining will he “cannot, will not” (Sam I Am) support Judge Alito’s nomination. He several times repeated the claim — one that the press has an obligation, I think, to subject to careful scrutiny — that, if only President Bush had picked any one of a number of consensus “conservative” nominees, he could have “united” the Country, and we would be today be witnessing a unanimous vote in the Senate. Of course, the chance that any “conservative” nominee to fill Justice O’Connor’s seat would have been approved unanimously by this Senate, in the current climate, is zero.

Richard Garnett is the Paul J. Schierl Professor of Law at the University of Notre Dame.
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