Senator Tom Harkin says the next nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court "should be" a woman.
"In fact, truth be known, about half the supreme court ought to be women and probably about almost half ought to be other minorities to if you really want to reflect the face of America," Harkin says.
Today, one of the nine supreme court justices is a woman, but Justice David Souter announced late last month that he’s retiring and President Obama will nominate a replacement. Harkin, a Democrat, says Obama hasn’t consulted with him about the opening on the nation’s highest court, but Harkin has some suggestions.
"I hope he appoints someone who went to night law school," Harkin says. "Someone who had to work and had to go to night law school and didn’t go to Harvard or Yale or one of those (Ivy League universities)."
Harkin earned his law degree by going to night law school at Catholic University, but during a weekend appearance on Iowa Public Television Harkin laughed when a reporter asked Harkin if he was suggesting he’d make a good nominee for the Supreme Court.
"Are you putting your name forward, senator?" the reporter asked. Harkin replied: "No, I’m not putting my name forward at all…You get my point, I think." Harkin met his wife, Ruth, in night law school.
President Obama and his wife earned their law degrees from Harvard.
Only one of the nine justices on the nation’s highest court earned their degree from a non-Ivy League school. Five of the nine justices on the U.S. Supreme Court earned their law degrees from Harvard; two others got their law degrees from Yale. The only woman on the court attended Harvard, but earned her law degree from Columbia — another Ivy League institution. The only non-Ivy League educated justice earned his degree from Northwestern Law School.