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President Obama began speaking with potential Supreme Court nominees this week in the hopes of announcing his pick in a few weeks. With Justice John Paul Stevens’ recent announcement of his retirement from the Supreme Court, Obama has been presented with a second opportunity to make his mark on the nation’s highest court since becoming President. As with his nomination of now-Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor last May, Obama says that he plans to choose someone who, in addition to the necessary credentials, also possesses an understanding of how Court rulings affect ordinary citizens. While Presidential aides are confident that they will be able to get the necessary Senate support they need to confirm Obama’s nominee, Republicans have voiced serious concerns. They are wary of Obama choosing what they call a judicial activist bent on bringing ultra-liberal interpretations of the Constitution to the bench. Right-wing media pundits have further disparaged Obama’s integrity in choosing a nominee. They argue that Obama will choose someone with a ridiculously poignant life story so as to silence opposition. In an op-ed piece in the New York Times, University of Chicago law professor Geoffrey Stone points out misconceptions about liberal justices and judicial activism.

GUEST: Geoffrey R Stone, a professor of law at the University of Chicago, an editor of The Supreme Court Review

Read Geoffrey Stone’s op-ed in the New York Times called Our Fill-in-the-Blank Constitution: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/14/opinion/14stone.html