A couple of items about the Supreme Court nomination that seems likely to be made next week:

  • Earlier this week, President Obama interviewed the thinking progressive’s choice, Diane Wood. I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed.

  • As I’ve said before, two of the four nominees Obama and Biden have apparently interviewed — Elana Kagan and Merrick Garland — strike me as obviously unacceptable given the Democratic majority in the Senate. The fourth potential nominee, Sidney Thomas, has a somewhat more promising record. As John Schwartz’s article today indicates, Thomas has some of the same virtues as Wood — he is extremely smart, has a solid progressive record (including on such issues as native rights), and as a graduate of University of Montana Law School would represent a break in the Court’s Ivy League hegemony. While I would still prefer Wood, Thomas is certainly an attractive candidate for future vacancies.

—Scott Lemieux

Scott Lemieux is a political science professor at the University of Washington. He writes for the blog Lawyers, Guns & Money. Follow @lemieuxlgm