Newsweek has listed the top five contenders of who they want to see on the court and why they should be picked.
None of the names jumped out with the exception of Elizabeth Warren, who I thought was taken off the list. Jon Alter has stated she is most definitely in contention.
Newsweek's Top 5 SCOTUS Picks
President Obama also warns of Conservative Judicial Activism: Obama warns of Conservative Judicial Activism
General Barry McCaffrey nominates Janet Napolitano:
Janet Napolitano was the U.S. attorney from Arizona when I started working with her while serving as the White House drug-policy director. I spent one long day with her in 1996 inspecting U.S. border operations along the frontier with Mexico. She struck me then, and she has ever since, as a remarkable public servant. She is extraordinarily intelligent, extremely family-oriented and compassionate, and with none of the posturing that we frequently see in political officials.
Jon Alter nominates Elizabeth Warren:
Elizabeth Warren, Harvard Law School professor and passionate consumer advocate, hasn't been on many shortlists for the Supreme Court. But I understand from administration sources that she is very much in the hunt. Warren would satisfy President Obama's criteria for the job, and she would likely prove to be a historic choice with a long-lasting impact on the country.
Ben Wittes nominates Merrick Garland:
If President Obama wants to use the current Supreme Court vacancy at once to promote his judicial values and to reestablish himself in the run-up to the midterm elections as a post-partisan president capable of genuine statesmanship, he has an obvious choice. That choice is Merrick Garland, a judge who has spent the years since 1997 bridging the divide between liberals and conservatives on the once polarized D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals—and often coaxing surprisingly liberal decisions from his conservative colleagues.
Charles Ogletree Jr nominates Elena Kagan:
Solicitor General and former Harvard Law School dean Elena Kagan would make a superb Supreme Court justice. If the president is looking for someone who is intelligent, independent, and young, and who will bring unique experience that will immediately enable her to have an impact on the court, Solicitor General Kagan is his choice. She has always overcome challenges by those who would underestimate her talent because of her age or gender.
(I suppose there will eventually be a Greenwald takedown).
Finally, Rob Warden nominates Diane Wood:
It is hard to imagine a more appropriate replacement for John Paul Stevens—or a more ideal addition to the Supreme Court—than Diane Wood, who sits on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago, where Stevens once served with distinction. Wood has been to the Seventh Circuit what Stevens has been to the Supreme Court: a counterweight to conservative fellow jurists. But she, like Stevens, is no ideologue, and she is held in high esteem by her conservative colleagues.
To read the rest of it, please link to the magazine article above. Outside of this, the other notable news came outside on the plane when Obama came back to talk to the press corps who were busy eating chicken parmagiana
Obama was asked about the Conservative judicial activism on the bench and what he thought of it:
President Barack Obama, preparing to make his second nominee to the Supreme Court, warned Wednesday of a "conservative" brand of judicial activism in which the courts are often not showing appropriate deference to the decision of lawmakers.
Obama made clear that his views on judicial restraint are not the only basis he will use in choosing his next nominee for the high court, a decision expected over the next few weeks.
But his comments underscore just how much he thinks courts are being vested with too much power and are overruling legislative will, a factor that will influence his nominee choice.
Does this make it likely he'll nominate a liberal? Could be.....