AP source: As part of Supreme Court search, Obama talks to appeals court judge from Montana
By Ben Feller, APFriday, April 30, 2010
AP source: Obama talks to judge about high court
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama has accelerated his search for his next Supreme Court nominee by interviewing candidates, including a meeting in the Oval Office with one of the people on his list, federal judge Sidney Thomas of Montana.
Obama’s roughly one-hour session with Thomas on Thursday was his first known formal interview for the upcoming vacancy on the court. The president has interviewed other candidates in person, too, and talked to some by phone, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Friday.
He did not identify them.
The time frame for Obama’s announcement appears to be quickening. Gibbs said it could come in “the next little bit of time” but ruled out this week.
Obama is choosing a nominee to replace Justice John Paul Stevens, who announced his upcoming retirement 21 days ago. By comparison, Obama spent 25 days evaluating candidates last year before nominating judge Sonia Sotomayor to replace another justice who retired from the court, David Souter.
The president’s interview of Thomas was first reported to The Associated Press by a person familiar with the conversations who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss Obama’s private deliberations. Vice President Joe Biden also interviewed Thomas at the White House, the person said.
The personal time Obama devoted to Thomas suggests that the federal judge, well respected within legal circles but hardly a familiar name in Washington, is under a higher level of consideration by the president.
The news of his interview by the president and vice president works to the White House’s advantage in signaling that Obama is giving a hard review to a candidate who comes from outside the Washington Beltway and does not neatly fit into conventional wisdom.
The court is dominated by justices with ties to the Northeast and the Ivy League; Thomas’ career is rooted in the West — he lives in Billings, Mont., and earned his bachelor’s degree from Montana State University and his law degree from the University of Montana.
The 56-year-old judge serves on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the largest of the nation’s appellate courts. He was nominated to that job in July 1995 by President Bill Clinton and confirmed by the Senate with no controversy.
The San Francisco-based appeals court on which he serves has a liberal reputation, but attorneys who know Thomas describe him as independent and plain-spoken.
Obama’s pick is not expected to upend the court’s balance of power — four on the left, four on the right, one in the middle. Stevens, the retiring justice, is the leader of the court’s liberals.
Thomas’ name has been on Obama’s known list of court contenders for more than two weeks. But the predictably intense speculation about whom Obama will pick has centered on other names — chiefly Solicitor General Elena Kagan and federal appeals court judges Diane Wood and Merrick Garland.
The president has been considering about 10 people as potential nominees.
Among the others are federal appeals court judge Ann Williams, former Georgia Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears, Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Harvard Law School Dean Martha Minow.
Obama already went through the formal interview process last year with three of the current top contenders — Wood, Kagan and Napolitano — before nominating Sotomayor.
Tags: Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, District Of Columbia, Does, Judicial Appointments And Nominations, Montana, North America, United States, Washington
