HIGH COURT TALK - AT 5:01 P.M. ET:  This must be labeled informed speculation:

WASHINGTON (AP) - A source tells The Associated Press that President Barack Obama is considering California Supreme Court Justice Carlos Moreno and more than five other people as nominees for the Supreme Court.

An official familiar with Obama's decision-making said others include Solicitor General Elena Kagan, Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and U.S. Appeals Court judges Sonia Sotomayor and Diane Pamela Wood—people who have been mentioned frequently as potential candidates.

COMMENT:  It's almost vulgar, but we discuss these things today almost as ethnic entitlements.  I'd rule out Elena Kagan.  She just got her new job as solicitor general, and she's a Jewish woman.  The Court already has one, Ruth Ginsburg.  Also, she's former dean of the Harvard Law School, which the Obamas attended.  Looks too inside.

I think Napolitano is a stretch, although she has a legal background.  She was Arizona attorney general and was a lawyer for Anita Hill!!  She meets the "female" requirement.  She is Italian-American, but there are already two Italian-Americans on the Court, Antonin Scalia and Sam Alito. She's gotten off to a rocky start as secretary of homeland security, and why should Obama want to move her, unless he wants to get rid of her?  Hmm.

Jennifer Granholm presides over an economic train wreck as governor of Michigan.  She was state attorney general.  She was born in Canada, which may count against her.  She's considered America's second "hottest" governor, behind Sarah Palin.  Meets the female test, but no other, except that, as governor, she has "practical" experience as well as a legal record, something Obama mentioned as desirable. 

Sonia Sotomayor is a Hispanic female with a great life story.  If Oprah were making the choice, Sotomayor would be chosen.  There have been suggestions that she isn't as brainy as Obama would like, but, after all, he did pick Joe Biden.

Diane Wood was a distant colleague of Obama's at the University of Chicago Law School.  Female and brainy, but doesn't do a thing in the ethnicity department.  A sitting federal appeals court judge.  Went to the University of Texas Law School, which may give her some "heartland" appeal. 

All these potential nominees are generally liberal, but that's what we expect.  Of course, the president can go outside this list.  None of the candidates here strikes me as an obvious choice.

May 13, 2009