Kamala Harris, the attorney general of California, 51, is considered a “leading candidate” for one of the most important positions in the world, according to USA Today and The New York Times. The sudden and untimely death of Justice Antonin Scalia could give President Barack Obama the opportunity to nominate his pick to fill the seat before he leaves office, and some have mentioned Harris’s name to replace Scalia.
But many Senate Republicans including some of the current conservatives running for president wants Obama to wait until his successor takes office in 2017, arguing that the sitting president should honor the Scalia legacy by not promoting someone to the position under his watch. Nowhere in the Constitution does it specify that Obama has to wait, however:
“The death of Justice Antonin Scalia on Saturday immediately set off a partisan battle over a vacancy that could reshape the Supreme Court for years to come, as Senate Republicans called on President Obama to let his successor fill the seat,” writes Peter Baker at The New York Times.
But Harris’s experience in the field of law, along with actually holding office, makes her an interesting potential candidate:
Kamala Harris: California’s attorney general, 51, could be another leading candidate. She has the added luster of holding political office, a life experience that is sorely lacking on the Supreme Court. She’s currently running for the U.S. Senate seat of retiring Sen. Barbara Boxer.
“In his three decades on the Supreme Court, Justice Scalia left a lasting impression on American jurisprudence,” Harris said in a statement, offering her condolences to the Scalia family, and also adding how, though many disagreed with him and his dissents, Scalia’s intellect and wit makes him one of the country’s most memorable Supreme Court Justices.
“Even those of us who vigorously disagreed with his views recognized the power of his intellect,” she added.
Harris was initiated into Alpha Kappa Alpha at Howard, and later was admitted to the California bar in 1990. In early 2011, the black college grad became the first female Black and Indian American AG in the state of California. Currently Harris is running for a vacant U.S. Senate seat.
