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The Hope of "appointing Hillary Clinton as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court"

RC Kazuhiro Ando

Time flies like an arrow. It has been three years since I came to study in the U.S. During these years, I have gained a lot of valuable experience. The most unforgettable experience among them was that, when I had a small trip to Portland, Oregon in mid-May, I happened to see Senator Barack Obama in front of the hotel at which I was staying and on the following day I had a chance to go to the campaign rally which was in the news because 75,000 people showed up. People got excited and raised a cheer at Obama's every move. It would be hard to experience such unspeakable exhilaration in Japan.

The U.S. presidential election is covered almost daily in the news. What has been frequently featured in the recent news is the next step of Senator Hillary Clinton who was practically defeated by Obama in the race for the presidential nomination. Some say that she should be nominated as the vice president, considering such a great fight and her support from white female voters. On the other hand, some say that she should be nominated as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. President appoints justices by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. They say, if Obama wins the presidential election, he should nominate Hillary as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.

Of course, President cannot nominate Hillary unless there is a vacancy on the Supreme Court of nine justices. The fact that five justices are over seventy might cause imprudent conjecture. Reportedly, Hillary's mother, Dorothy, also had kept saying to her, "Be a justice of the United States" since she was seven. Justice Sandra O'Connor retired in 2005 and now Justice Ruth Ginsburg is the only female among the Supreme Court judges. So, considering the balance, the appointment of women is strongly hoped. There seemed to be various backgrounds of the hope for the appointment of Hillary.

Like this Hillary's situation, it surprises me that ordinary people in the U.S. take a strong interest in the appointment of the Supreme Court justice. Some might say there is nothing surprising about people's such interest because the U.S. is a litigious society. However, I think that would be a too simple view. The U.S. Supreme Court has a major role in American society since it would not make an easy compromise with government or administration, and rather, makes a bold constitutional decision against political or economic policies. It might be an appropriate view that such a fact build up people's interest. In Japan, a citizen judge system will start May 21 of next year. I stop writing here, hoping that this system will be any help of making the public have more interest in Japanese judicial system.