Georgia's 1st black female and youngest chief justice is being considered for departing U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens

While I was under the weather for the last few days (literally after I returned from Atlanta), Leah Ward Sears, Georgia's 1st black and youngest chief justice name has popped up on the list of names to replace John Paul Stevens on the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS).  According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

Sears' name now is among more than half a dozen candidates being considered by the president to replace Justice John Paul Stevens, who is retiring this summer.

Well, this is an interesting series of developments involving the foolishness that has been pedaled by Senatorial Republicans at the idea of President Obama appointing another justice to the SCOTUS like Alabama's very own junior senator Jeff Sessions (backwoods, aversive racist asshole).  According to the Mobile Press-Register, Session released a long, yet convoluted statement commending and condemning President Obama if even thinks about attempting to nominate anything other than a social conservative to the post currently held by the clearly liberal John Paul Stevens.  This excerpt is so tale-telling about the double standard that Sessions along with the majority of the Senatorial Republicans on this process:

Justice Stevens' approaching retirement sets in motion an important constitutional process to nominate and confirm the next Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. In exercising its 'advise and consent' role, the Senate must act on behalf of the American people to carefully scrutinize the nominee's qualifications, prior speeches and writings, and record. Senate hearings are the public's best opportunity to become involved in this process, and it is critical that the Judiciary Committee conduct a fair and thorough evaluation of whomever President Obama nominates for this extraordinary lifetime appointment.

We know from the nomination of Justice Sotomayor last spring that the public is rightly concerned about the future of our judiciary. The product of her confirmation hearing was a near-universal rejection of President Obama's empathy standard, the flawed notion that judges should allow personal feelings, political opinions, and social views to guide judicial decision-making. Senators on both sides of the aisle--and the nominee herself--disavowed the president's standard because it lies contrary to the traditional role of a judge in our legal system. Such an approach opens the door to an anti-democratic abuse of power where unaccountable federal judges set national policy according to their own views and political agendas. That approach is deeply unpopular with the American people, and any nominee who subscribes to it should expect bipartisan opposition.

The courtroom is a place reserved for the search for truth and the fair adjudication of disputes, free from politics. The American people want judges of the utmost integrity who have demonstrated a commitment to the Constitution and a willingness to impartially apply the law to the facts to reach a just outcome, without regard to the parties involved. There is a growing movement that is calling for more fidelity to our constitutional order, not less.

This idiot is telling me that he made sure that Roberts and Alito were properly vetted in the Senatorial approval process?  That one is HIGHLY DOUBTFUL considering how bias on opinions Alito clearly is on rulings moreso than any other justice on the SCOTUS.  I hope that Obama nominates Sears for the SCOTUS since it would bring another open-minded moderate with progressive leanings and bonus of this one would a black female.  On the flip side, according to the Washington Post, Sears is friends with current sitting justice Clarence Thomas, so it would be interesting to see if he will do some backdoor campaigning in her favor. 

This is going to be a three-ring-circus and the Senatorial Republicans of the socially conservative and hyper-partisan ilk are just going to make this one so more dubious and annoying...