Driving Miss Janice: Will Judicial Diva Brown Take the SCOTUS Wheel?

Earlier today, Professor Doug Berman raised this possibility:

This article reports that President Bush "and First Lady Laura Bush were scheduled to participate in a wreath-laying ceremony this evening honoring late civil rights activist Rosa Parks."  Wouldn't it be an incredible moment of political theater and strategy to announce the SCOTUS nomination of Judge Janice Rogers Brown at this event?  The President could describe Brown as the judicial equivalent of Rosa Parks, and framing the nomination in such terms would, I think, greatly impact the political dynamics and debate surrounding this nomination.

Professor Ann Althouse condemned such a stunt as being in "mind-shattering bad taste"; A3G largely agreed, but added that it might also "partake of a certain 'so bad it's good' quality." (Carol Platt Liebau seemed to share A3G's view: it would leave President Bush open to charges of politicizing an apolitical event, but it would undoubtedly give rise to "a blockbuster moment.")

It now appears that there will be no SCOTUS announcement today, so this point may be moot. But if you're curious about what A3G meant when she said that announcing a Jance Rogers Brown nomination at a Rosa Parks ceremony might be "so bad it's good," consider how it would allow Judge Brown to deliver nomination acceptance remarks dominated by tortured, bus-related metaphors:

Back when I was a state court judge, a status that some commentators have described as "icky," I was sitting at the back of the judicial bus.  When I was confirmed to the exalted D.C. Circuit, our nation's preeminent federal appeals court, I moved up to the front of the bus. Now, if confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court, I will be driving that damn bus. I've come a long way, babies!

Of course, even if tonight's ceremonies for Rosa Parks come and go without an announcement, Judge Brown might still end up as the nominee. Feddie is now predicting that she will get the nod, and Erick thinks it is a definite possibility. With everyone fixated on Judge Alito and Judge Luttig, nominating Judge Brown would take many by surprise -- and President Bush sure likes surprises.

SUPREME COURT NOMINATIONS ARE FUN!!!

Comments

[TheSavant]

“The President could describe Brown as the judicial equivalent of Rosa Parks, and framing the nomination in such terms would, I think, greatly impact the political dynamics and debate surrounding this nomination.”

Apparently Prof. Berman expects that if Brown is nominated, she’ll be inviting arrest and imprisonment. How else to explain his prediction that that would greatly impact the political dynamics and debate surrounding this nomination. Unless, of course, he meant that it would greatly impact the dynamics and debate in the same way that, say, the release of Harriet Miers’ writings from the 1990s impacted the dynamics and debate surrounding that nomination.

[Article III Groupie]

Larry David, you have quasi-preempted a post that I've been working on drawing the Wanda Sykes-Janice Rogers Brown comparison! Well, I'll probably still publish it anyway -- I just wanted to get this on the record, so when I do publish it, you'll know that "great minds think alike," and won't accuse me of stealing your idea.

[larry david]

I haven't had the pleasure of hearing JRB speak. But when I read the descriptions of her and see her pictures, I can't help but hope that she speaks a bit like Wanda Sykes. Indignant, fiesty, fiery, etc.

Oh, the world would ring with job if she did. At her hearing, Sens. Schumer or Reid would stammer and stumble into some dumb challenge about Lochner. She would smite them, and shut them up, in a withering, weary, and somewhat hip tone.

I will be smiling the rest of the evening, full of hope...

Of course, if we could swap Luttig's dry drawl for Wanda Sykes' sass, I suppose that would work too. Basically every Supreme Court nominee would be improved this way.