On the assumption the Presidential election isn’t stolen, here are some people President Obama might consider for a Supreme Court appointment.

1. Ralph Nader. This would help the Democrats strengthen the Republican-Democrat duopoly, and would get Obama credit for putting an American hero on the court who also happens to be immensely qualified. Downsides: he might get borked by petty Democrats; he would likely turn down the nomination; and as Jeff has pointed out, he’s a little on the old side.

2. Marjorie Cohn. The President of the National Lawyers Guild, she’s a criminal law specialist but is also well knwon as a defender of Constitutional rights.

3. Nadine Strossen. She’s stepping down as president of the ACLU, so she must be looking for another job.

4. Deval Patrick. Shouldn’t there be a slot on the Court for a sensible person of color? Downside: not liberal enough.

5. Alan Dershowitz. Just kidding, but he would make a good Supreme Court mascot. And he is slightly smarter than Sarah Palin.

6. John Ashcroft. Okay, he’d be a terrible justice, but he sure can sing!

7. Lani Guinier. She deserves another chance.

8. Brian Leiter. A University of Chicago professor who’s a good legal scholar and philosopher. Potential problem: he might be seen as partisan/divisive. In my opinion, there’s nothing wrong with partisanship on the Supreme Court, which is after all a political court, right-wing howling to the contrary notwithstanding. The Court might do better if it had a partisan leftist or two to counter the Scalia/Thomas partisanship on the right.

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