Speculation is swirling in Washington that President Barack Obama may opt to nominate Sri Srinivasan, a highly-regarded judge of the US Court of Appeals, to the Supreme Court bench following the sudden death of top conservative judge Antonin Scalia on Saturday.
The 48-year-old Chandigarh-born Srinivasan is known to enjoy strong bipartisan support, something inescapable for Obama if he has to secure the Senate confirmation for his nominee. In May 2013, Srinivasan was confirmed for the Court of Appeals by an astounding 97-0 Senate approval.
If Srinivasan is indeed Obama’s choice, he could well be the first Asian-American to adorn the US Supreme Court. For now, however, the Republicans appear to be dead-set against giving consideration to an Obama nominee for the high position in this final year of his tenure. They want him to leave the nomination to the next President, but Obama has let it be known that he will come out with a nomination in due course.
As soon as news broke on Justice Scalia’s death, Srinivasan’s name began rising to the top in media projections as Obama’s choice. While The New Yorker described Srinivasan as “nominee in waiting”, others highlighted the fact that he had served in the US Solicitor General’s office under both President Obama and President George W Bush.
While nominating Srinivasan to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 2012, President Obama described him as “a highly-respected appellate advocate who has spent a distinguished career litigating before the US Supreme Court”.
A seat on the DC Circuit has been viewed as a traditional launching pad for Supreme Court nominees, CNN noted, commenting: “Any list (of Obama nomination to the highest court of the land) begins with Sri Srinivasan.”
An alumnus of Stanford University, Srinivasan could well be a consensus candidate for Obama to pick “if he wanted to try to lower the temperature” of Senate politics, commented appellate lawyer John Elwood, a partner at Vinson & Elkins in Washington.
A number of other names are also doing the rounds in media circles, including Patricia Millett, Srinivasan’s colleague on the DC Circuit, and former Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick.
Interestingly, the list of names speculated upon includes yet another Indian-American: Kamala Harris, Attorney General of California, who is currently running for the US Senate of retiring Senator Barbara Boxer.
Before joining the George W. Bush administration as Assistant Solicitor General, Srinivasan had clerked for Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. He had also been a partner in the law firm O'Melveny & Myers.
Srinivasan’s parents, belonging to Tamil Nadu, migrated to the United States in the late 1960s, with his father joining University of Kansas as a professor of mathematics and mother teaching at the Kansas City Art Institute and working later at the University of Kansas computer science department.