The U.S. Supreme Court is greying. Four justices are older than 70, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg is pushing 80.
There's an excellent chance one of these elders will step down in the next four years, and that Mitt Romney or Barack Obama will pick the next justice.
Given this golden opportunity, Romney would pick a Conservative with a strict interpretation of the Constitution in the model of Antonin Scalia, experts say.
"Romney has a real problem with hard-core conservatives," Duke Law professor Neil Siegel told Business Insider, referring to Romney's difficulty getting right-wingers' approval.
Siegel added, "Giving them the justices/judges they want would be an obvious way for him to satisfy them."
1. Brett Kavanaugh
Position: Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit
Age: 47
Conservative credentials: He's a George W. Bush appointee who issued an arguably pro-business, anti-environmentalist opinion recently.
Kavanaugh was criticized this month for issuing an opinion that threw out an EPA rule requiring states to police air pollution drifting in from bordering states.
6. Janice Rogers Brown
Position: Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit
Age: 63
Conservative credentials: Brown, a daughter of Alabama sharecroppers, has argued that liberal values take away citizens' autonomy and create a slave-like state, according to this 2005 New York Times profile.
She also opposes affirmative action and abortion rights.
2. Paul Clement
Position: Partner at the law firm of Bancroft LLP
Age: 46
Conservative credentials: Under George W. Bush, Clement served as solicitor general, a position known as the "10th justice" because the SG argues so many cases before the high court.
Clement resigned from his firm King & Spalding after it withdrew its decision to represent Republicans who were fighting to keep the Defense of Marriage Act in place. He joined Bancroft, which took up the pro-DOMA crusade.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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