Charles Whittaker

President Obama made much of the diversity of her professional experience as a lawyer and judge. Not surprisingly, no one in the Obama administration is in any hurry to draw any parallels to Charles E. Whittaker, the last justice who had served on a federal district court.

Whittaker, who like Sotomayor served as both a federal district court and circuit court judge before joining the Supreme Court in 1957, lasted only five years as a justice before suffering a nervous breakdown and quitting.

Newt Gingrich (Getty)

"White man racist nominee would be forced to withdraw. Latina woman racist should also withdraw," Gingrich wrote. This was preceded by: "Imagine a judicial nominee said 'my experience as a white man makes me better than a latina woman' new racism is no better than old racism"

Gingrich was referring to a lecture Sotomayor delivered at the University of California at Berkeley in October 2001 in which she discussed the relationship between her Latina identity and work as a judge.

"I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life," Sotomayor said.

You can judge for yourself how well Republicans are sticking to the party's script. Below is a copy of the Republican National Committee's talking points on Sonia Sotomayor's nomination obtained by our CQ colleague Jonathan Allen.

Talking Points: SCOTUS Nominee Sonia Sotomayor

May 26, 2009

• President Obama's nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court is an important decision that will have an impact on the United States long after his administration.

• Republicans are committed to a fair confirmation process and will reserve judgment until more is known about Judge Sotomayor's legal views, judicial record and qualifications.

Senate Republicans stayed strictly on message Tuesday in their comments about President Obama's selection of Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court. As these quotes from senators suggest, no Republican wants a judge who applies their own personal preferences.

Jeff Sessions of Alabama: "Of primary importance, we must determine if Ms. Sotomayor understands that the proper role of a judge is to act as a neutral umpire of the law, calling balls and strikes fairly without regard to one's own personal preferences or political views."

Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky: "But we will thoroughly examine her record to ensure she understands that the role of a jurist in our democracy is to apply the law even-handedly, despite their own feelings or personal or political preferences."

President Obama didn't unveil Sonia Sotomayor during a prime-time television event but otherwise all the other elements where there for a well executed unveiling.

Of course, Sotomayor made the sell-job easy, given her made-for-television life story rising from a Bronx housing project to Princeton, Yale Law School and the federal bench.

Obama made sure to point out Sotomayor's father had only a third-grade education and died when she was 9. He also recounted how her mother worked six days a week supporting Sotomayor and her brother and suggested she bought the only set of encyclopedias in the neighborhood.

A who's who of conservative activists spoke Thursday on a conference call organized by Manuel Miranda, head of the Third Branch Conference.

There were few threats about defeating a Supreme Court nominee and much talk about how the confirmation process could be an opportunity for conservatives to win a battle of ideas. "This is an enormous teaching opportunity for conservatives," said Richard Viguerie of ConservativeHQ.com.

Interestingly, Gary Bauer, long known as a leading social conservative, put executive power right along side abortion and gay rights as a key issue during the confirmation process.

"Clearly, the federal courts and the Supreme Court in the months and years ahead is going to get cases about what a commander in chief, a president, can do in detaining foreign enemies, what rights does our constitution give to non-citizens who mean to harm the United States, what is the proper way to seek justice when you're dealing with an enemy that does" not respect international law.

President Obama's first two judicial nominations will have to wait another week to get a vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

On Thursday, at least one committee Republican exercised his right to delay for a week consideration of the nominations of David Hamilton to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit and Andre Davis to the 4th Circuit.

"Our members are concerned about this nominee," said Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the committee's ranking Republican.

President Obama would enjoy at least one advantage should he wait until Congress' Memorial Day recess next week to announce his Supreme Court nominee.

Republican senators likely to take the lead in responding will be scattered around the country -- and say they don't necessarily have plans to rush back to Washington if a nominee is announced.

An announcement next week at the earliest seems increasingly likely with few signs from the White House that the president is ready to make a decision any time soon. Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, said Monday that Obama hadn't yet interviewed any potential candidates.

Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the Senate Judiciary Committee's ranking member, said he doesn't plan to be in Washington next week but wouldn't rule out a sudden return either.

As President Obama prepares to nominate his first Supreme Court justice, the White House is doubtless considering not only whom to select but how best to introduce the nominee to the public.

Since President Richard Nixon used prime time television to introduce his nominees Lewis F. Powell and William H. Rehnquist in 1971, the process of selling a high court pick -- to the nation as well as the Senate -- has become as elaborate as an election campaign, complete with photogenic stagecraft, polling and occasionally attack advertising. And the battle to control the message begins the minute the president announces his choice.

In July 1987, when Ronald Reagan announced his nomination of Robert H. Bork, the news was overshadowed within an hour by Massachusetts Democrat Edward M. Kennedy , who derided Bork on the Senate floor as someone who would consign women to "back-alley abortions" and close the federal courts' doors "on the fingers of millions of citizens."

A lesson all sides learned was the importance of humanizing nominees before opponents could demonize them.

Dave Fruedenthal (Getty)

The Associated Press reports Freudenthal recommended his wife as one of three potential candidates.

"I thought about that long and hard, and the question really came down to (was) should she be penalized for having married me," the governor told the AP. "And the conclusion I came down to is that all three of them are qualified, and fortunately, it's up to the president and not me."

Not only is Barbara Boxer encouraging President Obama to pick a woman for the Supreme Court, she's driving traffic to her 2010 campaign reelection website by asking the public to do so too.

If your Gmail messages contain references to the Supreme Court nomination, an advertisement might pop up above your inbox reading, "Tell Obama: Pick a Woman - ga6.org - Email Pres. Obama. Tell him to pick a woman for the Supreme Court."

That link leads to a page on Boxer's website where a form letter to the President is ready to be emailed. And if you happen to make a contribution to the Boxer campaign while you visit her site, all the better.

Senate Republican leaders emerged from a meeting with President Obama Wednesday and immediately began laying the groundwork for opposing Democratic efforts to get a Supreme Court nominee confirmed before the August recess.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said the average length of time between the announcement of a nominee and a confirmation hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee is 60 days and he would like to see that precedent followed when Obama selects a nominee to replace Associate Justice David H. Souter.

Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the Judiciary Committee's ranking Republican, said he opposed operating under a false sense of urgency, suggesting "there's plenty of time" to get Souter's successor in place before the court's new term begins in October.

Liberal interest groups are clamoring for President Obama to appoint a woman or minority to the Supreme Court, but the public doesn't share their ardor about the issue, a new Gallup poll found.

Roughly two thirds of those surveyed said it doesn't matter to them whether Obama appoints a woman, African-American or Hispanic to the court.

Just six percent of those polled said that it was "essential" that Obama appoint a woman, while another 26 percent agreed it would be "a good idea, but not essential." That combined tally of 32 percent is considerably smaller than the 43 percent who considered it essential or a good idea in September 2005 regarding a replacement for Sandra Day O'Connor.

The House Judiciary Committee moved quickly Tuesday to begin the process of impeaching U.S. District Judge Samuel B. Kent, one day after he was sentenced to 33 months in prison for obstruction of justice.

John Conyers Jr., the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, has introduced a resolution authorizing his committee to commence an impeachment inquiry, according to a committee aide. The House adopted that resolution Tuesday night.

The House Judiciary Committee is expected to vote on a separate resolution Wednesday to expand the jurisdiction of its existing task force investigating the potential impeachment of another federal judge to include Kent too.

Sens. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and Olympia J. Snowe, R-Maine, wrote President Obama Monday urging him to pick a woman for the Supreme Court.

"Women make up more than half of our population, but right now hold only one seat out of nine on the United States Supreme Court," Boxer and Snowe wrote. "This is out of balance. In order for the Court to be relevant, it needs to be diverse and better reflect America."

Ruth Bader Ginsburg has been the only woman on the court since the retirement of Sandra Day O'Connor in 2005.

Samuel Kent

U.S. District Judge Samuel B. Kent, who admitted that he lied to investigators looking into a sexual complaint against him, was sentenced Monday to 33 months in prison for obstruction of justice.

On Monday, the House Judiciary Committee's chairman, John Conyers Jr., D-Mich., and top Republican, Lamar Smith of Texas, released a statement warning that, "Unless Judge Samuel Kent immediately resigns, we intend to introduce a resolution jointly tomorrow to commence an inquiry into whether grounds exist to impeach him and remove him from office."

The identity group political drumbeat continued Monday as a group calling itself "Hispanics for a Fair Judiciary" called on President Obama to nominate one of their own to replace Justice David H. Souter.

While much of the attention has focused on Second Circuit Judge Sonia Sotomayor, participants in the conference call pointed out that 82 Hispanics currently serve as federal judges or on state courts of last resort.

"We have a deep bench," said Gabriela Lemus, executive director of the Labor Committee for Latin American Advancement.

But participants in the call declined to name any favorites among potential Hispanic nominees.

David H. Souter's successor on the Supreme Court will not be announced next week, according to White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs.

That's what Gibbs said Friday at his daily press briefing.

Asked for details about President Obama's consultation with senators, Gibbs said, "The president always is happy to hear from members that have suggestions. And some -- some have sent suggestions back to the president for him to look at and consider, none of which I'm going to impart today."

President Obama continued his consultations with Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday and the message seems to be: I won't put a bomb-thrower on the Supreme Court.

Iowa Republican Charles E. Grassley, who met with Obama at the White House Wednesday, told home state reporters in a conference call that the message he got from the president was, "it's not going to be somebody who is a bomb thrower."

That's the same term used by two other Republicans who have spoken with Obama this week: Orrin G. Hatch of Utah and Jeff Sessions of Alabama. Sessions said Obama used the term when they spoke Tuesday by phone.

Don't expect an announcement this week from President Obama about his pick to replace Justice David H. Souter on the Supreme Court.

That's the message Tuesday from both White House press secretary Robert Gibbs and Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt., the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

"It will not be this week," Leahy told reporters Tuesday.

At his White House daily briefing, Gibbs was even more emphatic. "It's not -- not -- not this week," Gibbs said.

A day after Orrin Hatch predicted a Supreme Court nominee could be ready by the weekend, conservative activists expressed concerns about the process moving too fast.

Charmaine Yoest, president of Americans United for Life, urged Jeff Sessions, the Senate Judiciary Committee's new ranking Republican, "to begin your role as ranking minority member by putting the brakes on rushing through a Supreme Court nominee."

"Proper evaluation of each nominee will help ensure that he or she is qualified and values application of the law, and is not a liberal judicial activist seeking to impose their own political agenda from the bench," Yoest said in a statement.

After speaking with the president on the phone Monday, Orrin G. Hatch predicted a replacement for Justice David H. Souter on the Supreme Court could be named as soon as this weekend.

"I'd be surprised if it went beyond this week," said Hatch, a Utah Republican and Senate Judiciary Committee member.

Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt., the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee said President Obama filled him in on when he was planning to announce a nominee but would not comment publicly on the time frame. "I'll let the president speak for himself," said Leahy, who intends to make his own recommendations to the president when they sit down and talk in person.

With all the talk about picking a Supreme Court justice from outside the "judicial monastery," it's a good time to review a recent article debunking the reputed value of plucking nominees from the federal circuit courts.

Research by a quartet of law professors and political scientists suggests presidents put too much stock in the Circuit Courts as a source for nominees to the Supreme Court.

"On balance, we find that the benefits are virtually nonexistent," the authors conclude. "Confirmation proceedings are no smoother for candidates coming from the circuits than for other nominees, and former appellate court judges are no more likely to follow precedent or put aside their policy preferences than are Justices lacking judicial experience."

Add Native Americans to the list of groups angling for one of their own on the Supreme Court.

A columnist in Native American Times has put forth the name of John Echohawk, the longtime executive director of the Native Americans Rights Fund, and the author deserves credit for creativity .

"Echohawk is the Cool Hand Luke of big time Indian lawyers," the Native American Times columnist, Louis Gray, notes. "Unshakable and deliberate in all his decisions, Echohawk never rattles under the most intense pressure."

Alas, Echohawk, who graduated from the University of New Mexico in 1967, is almost certainly too old for serious consideration at a time when candidates who have reached the age of 60 are considered over the hill.

It's hard to predict exactly when President Obama might announce his nominee to replace David H. Souter on the Supreme Court. But if recent history is any guide, expect a Senate confirmation vote before Congress leaves for its August recess.

The best recent parallel to the current situation is probably the two Supreme Court vacancies President Clinton faced early in his presidency. (Put aside the situation in 2005 when Sandra Day O'Connor waited until the end of the court's term in July and Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist's death threw off the process further.)

Both Byron R. White and Harry Blackmun announced their retirements in the spring: White in March 1993 and Blackmun in April 1994.

Call it good timing. Just two days before Justice David H. Souter announced plans to retire, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus sent President Obama a letter calling on him to appoint the nation's first Latino to the Supreme Court.

"Appointing our nation's first Hispanic justice would undoubtedly be welcomed by our community and bring greater diversity of thought, perspective and experience to the nation's legal system," wrote Nydia Velazquez, chair of the CHC, and Charles A. Gonzalez, the group's first vice chair.

A leading contender for the Souter vacancy is Sonia Sotomayor, a Latina judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

Interest groups across the political spectrum have been quick to offer their thoughts this morning about news of the reported pending retirement of Supreme Court justice David Souter. And their comments are predictable.

It appears People For the American Way wins for first out of the gate. In a statement emailed out this morning just after midnight, Marge Baker, the group's executive vice president and point person on judicial nominations, called on President Obama to "nominate someone who can continue his work to defend our personal freedoms and ensure that every person has equal access to justice."

The Cato Institute's Ilya Shapiro called it "the end of an error. David Souter, the "stealth justice" who George H. W. Bush nominated mainly to avoid a confirmation battle and who so disappointed conservatives, is finally free to leave a city he never took to and return to his native New Hampshire."

The reported retirement decision by Supreme Court Justice David Souter comes at a particularly inopportune time for Senate Republicans.

They're still getting used to the idea that there's a vacancy at the top of their side of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and they have to install a committee replacement for party-switcher Arlen Specter.

On Wednesday, when the committee held a confirmation for two of President Obama's appellate judge nominees, Tom Coburn, the least senior Republican, was the only one of the seven GOP committee members to attend. (That hearing was for David Hamilton to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit and Andre Davis to the 4th Circuit; if you're interested, you can follow the progress on their nominations through our Judge Tracker.)

Here's why having Specter no longer in the role of ranking Republican creates disarray in the GOP.