Ryan Ray
Amid a political firestorm surrounding the nomination process to replace the late Antonin Scalia on the U.S. Supreme Court, U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson floated a modest proposal: appoint fellow liberal populist Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
Grayson’s campaign released a statement Monday afternoon saying Warren would be an ideal candidate to shake up the high court’s delicate balance, wherein four conservatives have battled four liberal justices for the swing vote of moderate, Republican-appointed Justice Anthony Kennedy.
Grayson, an Orlando Democrat running for the U.S. Senate, cited Warren’s decades-long work as an attorney, Harvard academic, and federal lawmaker.
“She’s earned it, and she deserves it,” Grayson said. “And she’ll be so, so good at it.”
Grayson also praised Warren’s background, which would be unusual for a Supreme Court justice. She studied at public schools and fought for social justice in her legal work after a working-class upbringing, whereas most justices have historically come from patrician backgrounds and attained their law degrees at Harvard or Yale.
Warren became famous nationally for her work criticizing Wall Street and major financial institutions for their role in the economic downturn of the late 2000s.
“She has been an indefatigable watchdog over the capital markets for almost a decade, going back to her extraordinarily valuable work on the Congressional Oversight Panel for the federal bailout program,” Grayson said. “She created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, even though the Senate Republicans wouldn’t let her run it. She electrified the nation with her ‘you didn’t build that’ speech. And she has been a tireless and effective U.S. senator.”
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell has pledged to use every available means to block President Barack Obama from appointing the next justice. Although some Democrats have posited appointing a sitting senator might ease the path for a potential nominee, the polarizing Warren is likely not who they had in mind.
Warren, a popular figure in liberal circles, has also been floated as a possible running mate for both Hillary Clinton and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
