OPINION:
Presidents sometimes think too narrowly when selecting U.S. Supreme Court nominees (“Kagan gets Obama nod as pick for high court,” Page 1, Tuesday). President Obama, for example, seems to be obsessed with picking women for the high court. After selecting Sonia Sotomayor, he has nominated U.S. Solicitor General Elena Kagan.
Many of Mr. Obama’s other possible nominees have been women, too: Jennifer Granholm, Janet Napolitano and Diane Wood, to name a few.
Other presidents sometimes narrow the field based on ideology (conservative or liberal), race (black or Hispanic), whether the nominee has judicial experience, what law school he or she attended, the region of the country the candidate is from and the nominee’s age. (The younger they are, the longer they are likely to stay on the court.)
But narrowing the field like this can be self-defeating, as it excludes a lot of highly qualified candidates - and this omission may do our high court a disservice. The president’s first priority should be to get the most qualified candidate in order to strengthen the foundation and quality of our Supreme Court.
KENNETH L. ZIMMERMAN
Huntington Beach, Calif.
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