My Supreme Court Nominee: Cuéllar

President Obama has committed to nominating someone to fill the SCOTUS seat unexpectedly vacated by Antonin Scalia. So, Barack, if I can call you that, should you be reading this blog, let me give you my two cents: Mariano-Florentino (“Tino”) Cuéllar is your guy.

Cuéllar is, by any metric, an all star.

He was born in Northern Mexico, and is a naturalized U.S. citizen. And, in case you’re worried about that, remember that Justice Felix Frankfuter was a naturalized citizen. So that shouldn’t be a hurdle. 

It’s hard to beat Cuéllar’s academic record: He received a B.A. from Harvard magna cum laude, a J.D. from Yale Law School, and a Ph.D. in Political Science from Stanford. That’s a lot of education. He won’t be challenged as a lightweight.

Right now, he’s proving his judicial chops as an Associate Justice on the California Supreme Court. Sure, he’s only been in that job a little over a year. But prior to that he was a tenured professor at Stanford Law School. And don’t forget he took leave from that gig to come help you out as Special Assistant to the President for Justice and Regulatory Policy in 2009 and 2010.

Cuéllar was no schlub prior to landing as Stanford. He worked in the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Enforcement and clerked for Chief Judge Mary M. Schroeder of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

This guy is impressive. And he seems pretty Senate-proof. You should fly him out to D.C. for a chat.  

-KitJ