A SCOTUS Short List

I'm still betting on Sotomayor. Via Taegan-

According to a couple of sources in the know, First Read says there appears to be a working short list of about six names for President Obama's Supreme Court pick.

The co-frontrunners: Diane Wood of the 7th Circuit, Solicitor General Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor of the 2nd Circuit, Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Merrick Garland of the DC Circuit Court of Appeals.

"Obviously, folks can slice this list all they want: Five are women; one's Hispanic; one's male; and all are in their late 40s or early 50s, except two (Wood, 58, and Garland, 56). Keep an eye on Napolitano. For this pick, it would be surprising if Obama named someone he didn't either know well or trust personally. Wood, Kagan, and Napolitano all fit this bill (Wood taught at the University of Chicago with Obama, and Kagan and Napolitano already have top slots in the administration). As for Napolitano, remember that she endorsed Obama early on (despite Emily's List pressure to do otherwise). And from people familiar with the president's thinking, he's been as impressed with Napolitano as anyone in his cabinet. They click. That matters..."

No to Kathleen Sullivan, yes to Elena Kagan for Solicitor General

By GottaLaff

Original post here, for background. Elena Kagan is Obama's nominee for the first female Solicitor General:

President-Elect Obama intends to nominate the dean of the Harvard Law School to be the first female full-time solicitor general, the government's top courtroom advocate. No woman has ever held the position in any but an acting role.

Elena Kagan is a former Clinton White House lawyer and policy adviser. She also clerked for Justice Thurgood Marshall at the Supreme Court and, before that, for Judge Abner Mikva at the D.C. Court of Appeals. [...]

For deputy attorney general, the person who runs DOJ day to day, Obama wants David Ogden, who's been running the Justice transition. Ogden was an assistant attorney general in charge of the Civil Division under Clinton and also served as Janet Reno's chief of staff during part of the time she was attorney general. He's a former Harry Blackmun clerk at the U.S. Supreme Court.

For the No. 3 spot at DOJ, associate attorney general, Obama has chosen Tom Perrelli. He was a counsel to Reno and an official in the Civil Division under Clinton.

And for the person in the very sensitive job of heading up DOJ's Office of Legal Counsel, Obama has chosen an academic -- Dawn Johnsen, a professor of law at Indiana University. She's an OLC veteran and was its No. 2 official there under Clinton and Reno. In the Bush administration, opinions from OLC justified the use of waterboarding and other harsh interrogation methods. Some of those opinions were later rescinded. A top priority for the Obama Justice Department will be sorting through the OLC opinions written during the war on terror and deciding which to declare void.