With the news that Justice Souter is retiring, and with thoughts turning to his possible successor, I’m reminded of the “independent grassroots campaign” — headed by a group of liberal activists — that received some attention in 2005 to urge the President to nominate Fifth Circuit Judge Ed Prado for the Supreme Court.
I admit I was dubious about the effort back in 2005. But I’ve been thinking about it a lot in last 4 years — or at least in the last 4 minutes, since learning that Souter is going to retire — and I think it’s high time to take that campaign seriously.
You may recall that this group made its compelling case as follows:
A Supreme Court Justice for All Americans
Imagine a Supreme Court nominee with a mainstream approach to the law who has earned the respect of both Republicans and Democrats. Imagine a nominee for the Supreme Court of unquestioned stature with decades of judicial experience.
Stop imagining. . . Meet Judge Ed Prado.. . . Judge Prado has earned bi-partisan support as an extremely intelligent, moderate, fair-minded jurist in his 20 years on the federal bench.
Advise President Bush and your Senators to put an experienced moderate on the Supreme Court. Send them a message TODAY!
Now, I realize that some people figured that the DraftPrado movement was a cynical effort by liberal activists who actually didn’t want a moderate. The cynics will say that Prado was the most liberal person with some GOP connections that the “grassroots” organizers could find, and they wanted to make Bush’s actual nominees seem more conservative by comparison to lessen their chances of confirmation.
But zoiks, people, do we really need to be so cynical about Supreme Court comfirmation battles? For shame, for shame. I think we should take these grassroots activists at their word. Indeed, I can only assume that whatever anyone said about the Supreme Court vacancies in 2005 will be exactly their position in 2009. Given that, there is obviously a significant grassroots movement to get Ed Prado on the Supreme Court, and I hope Barack Obama is listening to the movement. Stop imagining . . . Meet Judge Ed Prado.