{The life of a Supreme Court justice would be \u201ca little bit too monastic\u201d for President Obama, according to an interview he gave the New Yorker about his legal legacy.}<\/p>\n
Obama also praised the Supreme Court\u2019s recent decision not to review lower-court rulings that struck down state prohibitions on same-sex marriage, saying he believes that the Constitution provides gays the right to marry. And he said that 81-year-old Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg \u201cgets to decide, not anybody else, when she chooses to go\u201d into retirement.<\/p>\n
Obama made the remarks to the magazine\u2019s legal correspondent, Jeffrey Toobin.<\/p>\n
Toobin noted that the president has now nominated about a third of the nation\u2019s federal judges \u2014 including Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan \u2014 and that on nine of the nation\u2019s 13 appeals circuits, a majority of judges were chosen by Democratic presidents. When Obama took office, Republican appointees were a majority on 10 of the circuits.<\/p>\n
Obama said he takes pride that he has appointed more women and minorities to the courts than any of his predecessors.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there are some particular groups that historically have been underrepresented \u2014 like Latinos and Asian Americans \u2014 that represent a larger and larger portion of the population,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd so for them to be able to see folks in robes that look like them is going to be important.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I came into office, I think there was one openly gay judge who had been appointed. We\u2019ve appointed 10.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked to name \u201cthe best Supreme Court decision of his tenure,\u201d Obama picked the court\u2019s announcement this month that it would not review three appeals-court rulings that had collectively struck down bans on same-sex marriage in five states, including Virginia.<\/p>\n
{{Washington Post}}<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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