2 Southern California judges on short-list for potential Supreme Court nominees

Two Southe Califoia judges have made several shortlists of potential U.S. Supreme Court nominees to fill the seat left vacant by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia on Saturday.

President Barack Obama said he intends to nominate a successor “in due time.”

Scalia’s death has sparked widespread speculation as to whom Obama will nominate. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McCoell has said Scalia shouldn’t be replaced until after the election.

Several news organizations have named Paul Watford and Jacqueline Nguyen as part of their predictions for potential nominees. Both judges sit on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in Pasadena.

Watford, 48, was an Obama appointee to the court and was confirmed in 2012 by a 61-34 vote, with 9 Republicans voting in favor.

Nguyen, 51, was also nominated by Obama and confirmed in 2012 by a 91-3 vote. She would be the first Asian-American Supreme Court justice.

Laurie Levenson, a professor at Loyola Law School, said both judges are respected and loved in the legal community.

“They’re the combination of really good person and really smart judge,” Levenson said. “But right now, I don’t know how well it will play in the political arena. It seems to me what the Republicans want is no candidate or a conservative candidate.”

And Nguyen and Watford don’t fit that criteria, she said.

Other names that have been mentioned among the potential nominees include U.S. Attoey General Loretta Lynch, Califoia Attoey General Kamala Harris, and federal judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit Sri Srinivasan, Patricia Millett and Merrick Garland, who is the chief judge.

Paul Watford

Watford, an Orange County native, attended UC Berkeley and UCLA School of Law. After graduating from law school, he served as a law clerk to Judge Alex Kozinski of the 9th Circuit and as a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. His past jobs include litigation partner at Los Angeles law firm Munger, Tolles & Olson and assistant U.S. attoey in the Central District of Califoia, where he worked in the Major Frauds Section, Criminal Division.

Watford, an African- American, is viewed as ideologically moderate, according to the New York Times.

“He could be a very logical choice,” Levenson said. “I’m not sure he’s confirmable right now,” given the political climate.

Levenson said Watford has an excellent legal pedigree and is seen as practical.

“I think he has verified liberal credentials that may not serve him so well in the current political arena,” she said.

Jacqueline Nguyen

Nguyen, like Obama, attended Occidental College in Eagle Rock and graduated from UCLA School of Law. She worked at L.A. law firm Musick, Peeler & Garrett and then joined the U.S. attoey’s office in Los Angeles.

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In 2002, Gov. Gray Davis appointed her to the Los Angeles County Superior Court and in 2009 Obama selected her as a federal judge for the Central District of Califoia becoming the first Vietnamese-American federal judge.

Nguyen has a compelling back story. When she was 10 years old, her family fled to the U.S. from Vietnam after the fall of Saigon. They settled in the L.A. area and opened a doughnut shop in North Hollywood.

“She’s just, once again, somebody I think is very much in touch with both the law and how it affects people,” Levenson said. “In a different political climate, I think she would be one of the frontruers. It’s impossible to say in the current climate.”

Some have said because Nguyen and Watford were both vetted and confirmed by the Senate recently, it would be hypocritical for Senate Republicans to block either of their nominations.

Jack Pitney, a political science professor at Claremont McKea College, disagreed saying a senator could argue that a Supreme Court nominee has different criteria than a nominee for a lower court.

“It’s hard to see how a Republican Senate is going to confirm any Obama nominee,” Pitney said. “From the standpoint of a Senate Republican, almost by definition, anybody who Obama would nominate is not a moderate.”

The only way Pitney could see that changing is if there is grass-roots pressure on a Republican senator who is in a tough re-election campaign.

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