Awww...Sessions would consider gay SCOTUS nominee - not "automatic disqualification"

[jefferson_dem]

Sessions would consider gay SCOTUS nominee
By J. Taylor Rushing
Posted: 05/06/09 01:19 PM

Sen. Jeff Sessions, the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Wednesday he could consider a gay nominee for the nation’s highest court.

“I’m not inclined to think that’s an automatic disqualification,” Sessions said of a gay nominee. He said he intends to consider only the nominee’s legal judgment when deciding his support for Justice David Souter’s proposed replacement.

“I may disagree with some legal opinion on those issues, but I think fundamentally it will be up to the president to submit somebody who would unite the country and would be a clear statement of a mainstream judge who commits himself to the law,” said Sessions, who will have a key role in any confirmation debate.

Gay rights groups have voiced hope that Obama will select the first openly-gay Supreme Court nominee, and the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund has offered two suggestions: Kathleen Sullivan, a former Stanford Law School dean, and Pam Karlan, another Stanford professor.

But conservative leaders have warned the nomination of a gay or lesbian justice could complicate Obama’s effort to confirm a replacement for Souter, and another Republican senator on Wednesday warned a gay nominee would be too polarizing.

“I know the administration is being pushed, but I think it would be a bridge too far right now,” said GOP Chief Deputy Whip John Thune. “It seems to me this first pick is going to be a kind of important one, and my hope is that he'll play it a little more down the middle. A lot of people would react very negatively."”

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http://thehill.com/index2.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=82213&pop=1&page=0&Itemid=70

[joeybee12]

1. Just like Scalia, Roberts, Alito and Thomas UNITE the country? n/t

[SacredCow]

2. "A lot of people would react very negatively"

The GOP would collectively throw a tantrum, you mean. Yeah, BIG shock....