“A Supreme Standard: Constitutionalism and the Supreme Court Selection Process”

From Hillsdale College:

First Principles on First Fridays

“A Supreme Standard: Constitutionalism and the Supreme Court Selection Process”

Ed Whelan

June 4, 2010

When it comes to the nomination and selection of Supreme Court Justices, what qualifi es an individual to sit on the Court? What should Americans demand of those who serve on the highest court in the land? ven more, what makes for a truly great Supreme Court Justice? With attention to the recent nomination of Elena Kagan, this lecture will try to make sense of the Supreme Court selection process.

Ed Whelan is president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center. A lawyer and former law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, Whelan has served as Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel in the Department of Justice, and as general counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa and with honors from Harvard College, and received his J.D. magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, where he was a member of the Board of Editors of the Harvard Law Review. He is a frequent contributor to NRO's Bench Memos blog.