Sri Srinivasan, the Indian-American judge on the powerful US Court of Appeals District of Columbia Circuit, is reported to be among four judges being vetted by the White House as President Barack Obama considers a potential nominee in place of Justice Antonin Scalia who died last month.
Besides 49-year-old Srinivasan, hailed by Obama as a “trail-blazer” after naming him to his present post in 2013, the other judges being vetted are: Merrick B. Garland, Chief Judge of the DC Circuit Court of Appeals; Jane l. Kelly, a federal appellate judge in Iowa; and Ketanji Brown Jackson, a judge of the US District Court for DC.
Despite the Republican threat not to consider any Obama nominee for the apex court, arguing that he should leave it to his successor to fill the vacancy, President Obama has made it clear that he will press ahead with the nomination.
The White House, however, has declined to confirm or deny any of the names doing the rounds. Spokesman Josh Earnest has confined himself to saying that the president has held discussions with senior advisers and would spend part of his weekend weighing his options about naming the best person for the job.
Citing a person familiar with the process, The New York Times reported that both Garland and Srinivasan are undergoing the mandatory background checks by the Federal Bureau of Investigation as part of the selection process for potential nominees. Both are said to have enjoyed “substantial support from Republicans in the past”.
Judge Kelly is also known to have enjoyed Republican support, notably from her home-State Senator Charles Grassley, who heads the Senate Judiciary Committee. The Senate had confirmed both Kelly and Srinivasan in their present positions in 2013 by a voice vote.
Apart from the four judges now being vetted, the White House had also considered Nevada’s Republican Governor and former federal judge Brian Sandoval for the vacant slot – till Sandoval took himself out of contention against the backdrop of the resolve of the Senate Republicans not to consider any Obama nominee.