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March 5, 2005

Roper's impact on the next chief?

Commentary on the Roper decision continues to appear in the papers and the blogsphere, and SCOTUSblog here and How Appealing everywhere are the places to go for links to much of it.  But this morning I was especially intrigued by this piece from Tony Mauro suggesting Justice Kennedy's work in Roper could hurt his chances to be the next Chief Justice.  (Recall my long-ago speculations here than Booker might impact the Chief sweepstakes.  That's pretty unlikely now that Justices Stevens and Breyer were the opinions' authors.)

Even before Roper, I saw Justice Kennedy as fourth in line among current Justices for the top spot on the Court (behind Justices Scalia, Thomas and O'Connor).  Moreover, because of the predicted battle royale over coming SCOTUS nominations, the White House may well opt to nominate an outsider directly to the position of Chief rather than have to battle twice over an internal elevation and an outside nomination.

March 5, 2005 at 11:09 AM | Permalink

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