Could someone with this resume get through the Senate? Would Obama even nominate him?
* First in his class at Howard Law School
* One year out of law school, became a civil rights lawyer with the NAACP
* Became the NAACP's Chief Counsel at age 32
* Argued the most controversial civil rights case of the era before the United States Supreme Court
* Judge on the Second District Court of Appeal for four years
* Served as Soliciter General for two years
(more after the jump)
This is Thurgood Marshall's resume. In 1967, a black man who won Brown v. Board of Education, forcing the integration of schools across much of the country, could get through Senate confirmation, only two months after the Supreme Court rule anti-miscegenation laws unconstitutional. In 2009, could a civil rights attorney like Marshall make it?
In a related note, how many of those who are already decrying the potential Sonia Sotomayor appointment as affirmative action supported Harriet Miers nomination, or would have been behind Alberto Gonzales had he been the nominee?
Here, by the way is Senator John Cornyn's October, 2005 Wall Street Journal op-ed in support of Miers' nomination. This is Cornyn's standard:
And, moreover, there is little question that she is up to the job. She has been a true trailblazer for women in the law. She was the first woman hired by her law firm--one of the most prominent in Texas. She was the first woman to serve as president of her law firm. She was the first woman to serve as president of the Dallas Bar Association. She was the first woman to serve as president of the Texas Bar Association. And her accomplishments do not end at the Lone Star border.
For the past five years, she has worked at the highest levels in the White House, including serving as the president's closest legal adviser. Few lawyers in America have a more impressive resume. And none have more of the president's confidence.
I'm sure he'll use that as a measuring stick for Obama's nominee.
(cross-posted at notesfromthehovel.blogspot.com)