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Obama looking for common touch in next justice
AP - Sunday, May 24
WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama says he doesn't feel "weighed down" by a need to pick the next Supreme Court justice based on demographics, arguing that intellectual firepower and empathy with ordinary people are more important.
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"You have to have not only the intellect to be able to effectively apply the law to cases before you," Obama said in an interview broadcast Saturday on C-SPAN television. "But you have to be able to stand in somebody else's shoes and see through their eyes and get a sense of how the law might work or not work in practical day-to-day living."
In the wide-ranging interview, Obama also said it's safe to say he will announce his choice soon to replace retiring Justice David Souter and that he doesn't feel pressured by the time it takes to complete the confirmation process. He did say, though, he wants the new justice confirmed with time left to prepare for the high court's fall term.
Obama, a former law professor, said he has followed the court quite closely; admires retired Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, although he hasn't agreed with all her rulings; and believes that Justice Antonin Scalia, the court's leading conservative and a prolific author of opinions, "is a terrific writer."
On the issue of high-court diversity, Obama was asked how his wife, daughters and mother-in-law might feel if he doesn't name a woman to the court.
"Actually I can't tell you the number of women, including Michelle, who say choose the person you think is going to be best," he said. "If I end up having more than one nominee, I am pretty confident that it would be reflective there of some diversity. I think in any given pick, my job is to just find somebody who I think is going to make a difference on the courts and look after the interest of the American people. And so, I don't feel weighed down by having to choose a Supreme Court Justice based on demographics."
But he quickly added: "I certainly think that ultimately we want a Supreme Court that is reflective of the incredible variety of the American people."
The court currently has a single female justice _ Ruth Bader Ginsburg _ and has never had a Hispanic justice.
Several women are among those confirmed as under consideration. They include Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, Solicitor General Elena Kagan, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, and U.S. Appeals Court judges Sonia Sotomayor and Diane Pamela Wood. California Supreme Court Justice Carlos Moreno also is said to be under active consideration.
"Obviously, you want somebody who is highly qualified, who knows the law," Obama told C-SPAN. "I want somebody who, obviously, has a clear sense of our constitution and its history and is committed to fidelity to the law."
Obama said his choice would be somebody "able to stand in somebody else's shoes."
The president cited the case of 70-year-old Lilly Ledbetter, the central figure in a 2007 Supreme Court decision saying discriminatory pay actions by companies had to be addressed immediately or not at all.
Ledbetter has said she did not learn about the sizable discrepancy in pay between her and her male co-workers until near the end of her 19-year career at a Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. plant in Gadsden, Ala. She sued, but the high court said in a 5-4 decision that she missed her chance to bring the action.
The court said a person must file a discrimination claim within 180 days of a company's initial decision to pay a worker less than another doing the same job.
Under a law signed by Obama on Jan. 29, each new discriminatory paycheck would extend the statute of limitations for an additional 180 days.
"She didn't know that she was getting paid less. When she discovered it, she immediately filed suit to get back pay and the suggestion was somehow that she should have filed suit earlier," Obama said. "Well, I think anybody who has ever worked in a job like that understands that they might not know that they were being discriminated against it. It doesn't make sense for their rights to be foreclosed?"
"That's the kind of case, where I want a judge not only to be applying the law in front of them, but also to understand that as a practical matter," he said.
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