Indian-American legal eagles headed for US apex court?

The writer has posted comments on this articleChidanand RajghattaChidanand Rajghatta, TNN | Apr 10, 2013, 10.30 PM IST

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Because there is no term or age limit for US supreme court justices and vacancies are created only by "natural causes" i.e. death, or voluntary retirement, presidential appointments are rare and eagerly watched, since they can profoundly alter the ideological balance of the bench. (Reuters photo)

WASHINGTON: Sri Srinivasan's confirmation hearing that could make him the first ever Indian-American to serve as a federal judge began on Wednesday, but he is already being talked up to the United States supreme court. So is Kamala Harris, California's attorney-general, who last week got a rah-rah recognition from President Obama himself. Either way, if American punditocracy is to be believed, a massive milestone is coming up for the Indian-American community: the country's best-educated, highest-earning ethnic group could be boasting of a supreme court Justice from its distinguished ranks before the end of President Obama's second term.

Already, a landmark development is in the offing this week. The politico-legal and judicial fraternity in America turned its attention on Wednesday towards the Senate judiciary committee as it began confirmation hearings on President Obama's nomination of Srinivasan to the DC circuit court of appeals, which is widely regarded as the second highest court in the country. It is seen as a stepping stone to the supreme court. Five of the nine members of the current supreme court are alumni of the federal appeals court, including Chief Justice John Roberts, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Antonin Scalia.

In fact, pundits are already forecasting that Srinivasan will make the top grade before President Obama demits office. "Technically, Sri Srinivasan is just a candidate for the United States court of appeals for the DC circuit, but few are misled. The stakes in this nomination are clear: if Srinivasan passes this test and wins confirmation, he'll be on the supreme court before President Obama's term ends," legal maven Jeffrey Toobin wrote on Tuesday in a New Yorker blog, ahead of the much-awaited hearing.

Toobin says Srinivasan "has the sort of impeccable credentials that are much beloved by the supreme court bar," and "the safe assumption seems to be that he would be the same kind of moderate liberal as Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan," the two justices appointed to the supreme court by President Obama during his first term.

The Chandigarh-born Srinivasan, who grew up in Lawrence, Kansas, after his Indian parents moved there to work at the University of Kansas, is only 47 and already has a stellar academic and legal career behind him. After earning degrees from Stanford Law School and Business School, he taught at Harvard Law School and clerked with Justice Sandra Day O'Connor before he joined the office of the United States solicitor general. In 2011, President Obama appointed him principle deputy solicitor general to replace Neal Katyal, another Indian-American.

Since then, he has argued more than 20 cases before the supreme court on behalf of the administration, including landmark cases relating to health care and same-sex marriage, establishing his moderate-liberal credentials.

Because there is no term or age limit for US supreme court justices and vacancies are created only by "natural causes" i.e. death, or voluntary retirement, presidential appointments are rare and eagerly watched, since they can profoundly alter the ideological balance of the bench. Obama is the first President after Reagan who is expected to make a third appointment.

The justice most likely to retire before the end of Obama's second term is, in Toobin's reckoning, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, who has just turned 80. The question he and other pundits are mulling over is whether Obama will prefer to retain three women on the nine-member bench or go for someone like Srinivasan, who will make the gender break 7-2 in favor of males, but who will also add an element of ethnic diversity.

In fact, the two supreme court justices Obama has had the privilege of appointing have both been women. Sonia Sotomayor, who Obama appointed in 2009, is only the third woman and the first Hispanic in the court's 223-year history, which has seen only 112 justices. The 112th justice is Elena Kagan, who Obama appointed in 2010 to fill the vacancy caused by the retirement of John Paul Stevens.

However, there is one possible candidate who fulfills both criteria in the form of a female Indian-American. Tom Goldstein of SCOTUS, a much acclaimed blog on the US supreme court, puts California's attorney general Kamala Harris, 47, on top of a list of nearly a dozen female nominees he considered as a replacement for Ginsburg.

"Taking all of the criteria into account, as things stand now, there is only one candidate who otherwise fits the bill of the ideal nominee: Kamala Harris," Goldstein wrote after scrutinizing her record and qualifications and comparing it to other potential candidates, while pointing out that like the president, she is also biracial. Harris was born in Oakland, California to Dr Shyamala Gopalan, a breast cancer specialist who emigrated from Chennai in 1960, and Donald Harris, a Jamaican-American who taught economics at Stanford University.

However, that blog entry, dating back to last February, was made before president Obama caused uproar last week by calling Kamala Harris "the best-looking attorney-general in the United States." Although seen as being made in a friendly, affectionate way, the White House later said Obama phoned Harris to apologize for the remark after the gender police roasted him for a momentary lapse into sexism.

Fortunately for Srinivasan, he has not been at the receiving end of any such personal compliments from Obama, although the president has pulled out all stops to ensure his confirmation with heavy lobbying by the White House. While announcing his nomination last year, Obama called Srinivasan a "trailblazer" who "will serve the court with distinction and excellence."

The hearing has attracted huge attention from the Indian-American community, including support from lawmakers for his confirmation. "Sri Srinivasan would be an outstanding court of appeals judge. His appointment would make history and be a proud moment for the Indian-American and broader Asian-American communities. He should be speedily confirmed by the US Senate," Ami Bera, the Indian-American congressman from California, said in a statement.

Even the New York Times recognized the imminent landmark development. "As a 46-year-old lawyer with bipartisan backing who would become the first appeals court judge of South Asian heritage, Mr Srinivasan himself is a potential supreme court candidate," the paper noted in its preview of the hearing.

Incidentally, Americans are getting increasingly familiar with the name Srinivasan, whether spelt with an 'i' or with two ee-s. Other Sreenivasan newsmakers, in the literal sense: Hari Sreenivasan, now an anchor with PBS NewsHour, and Sreenath Sreenivasan, chief digital officer at Columbia University and a social media guru. The Chandigargh-born Sri Srinivasan is the brother of Srinija Srinivasan, Yahoo's fifth employee and for many years it's editor-in-chief and search maven before she left in 2010.

President Obama himself has honored two other Srinivasans in the White House in recent months: Rangaswamy Srinivasan, who was awarded the presidential medal for technology for pioneering work that led to Lasik eye surgery; and Anand Srinivasan, a 15-year old sophomore from Georgia who was a finalist at the Google Science Fair.

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