Immigration Experience of Possible Supreme Court Nominee

According to some reports,  including CNN, Maureen Mahoney is one of the possible nominees to the U.S. Supreme Court.  A former law clerk to Chief Justice Rehnquist and current Latham & Watkins partner, Mahoney served as Deputy Solicitor General in the first Bush administration.  In that capacity, she successfully argued for the U.S. government in several important immigration cases including Sale v. Haitian Centers Council, Inc. (1993) (Haitian interdiction), INS v. Doherty (1992) (asylum claim of a former Provisional Irish Republican Army member), and ), and INS v. Elias -Zacarias (1992) (asylum claim of Central American).   More recently, while in private practice, Mahoney successfully defended the University of Michigan law school’s race-conscious affirmative action program in Grutter v. Bollinger (2003).  Her role in Grutter probably decreases the likelihood that Mahoney gets the nomination.

KJ