The Washington Post today wrote a story floating Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval as being in consideration by President Obama for the open Supreme Court seat.
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“I have also spoken to Senators Reid, Heller and McConnell and expressed the same desire to them”, Sandoval said.
Obama said he plans to send a nominee “that has impeccable legal credentials and would bring the kind of ability and compassion and objectivity and legal reasoning to the court that the highest court in the land demands”.
Asked if the White House was disappointed by Sandoval’s decision, Obama spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters, “He’s obviously entitled to make decisions about his own career”.
Following Wednesday’s Washington Post report saying that Obama is vetting him, Sandoval spokeswoman Mari St. Martin said that “neither Gov. Sandoval nor his staff has been contacted by or talked to the Obama administration regarding any potential vetting for the vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court”.
Justice Antonin Scalia’s sudden death almost two weeks ago leaves a spot in the Supreme Court, which President Barack Obama is trying to fill.
The president’s stern comments came a day after Senate Republican leaders not only repeated their view that the Supreme Court vacancy be unfilled until after the November election, but suggested they would not even give a potential Obama nominee the courtesy of a personal visit.
While Sandoval’s ultimate nomination is considered unlikely, Obama could gain credibility among some Republicans and independents for agreeing to consider someone from the opposite party at a time when Senate Republicans have refused even to hold hearings on anyone he chooses.
Limited to two terms, Sandoval’s final term as governor expires in early 2019.
On Tuesday, Mitch McConnell the Senate Majority Leader and a Republican from Kentucky said his 54-member Senate GOP caucus was united in its stance against taking steps in the process of advice and consent by the Senate for a new justice. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
“As a friend and former colleague of Governor Sandoval’s, I believe he is eminently qualified for this position”.
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Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., last week mused that the next justice could be a Nevadan.
