Obama Considering Code Pink Leader Medea Benjamin for Supreme Court

Geraldine Kelly
WASHINGTON
May 1, 2009

President Obama declared on the campaign trail last year that any nominees to the Supreme Court under his watch would be "prudent, intelligent, and consistent with the highest law of the land."

Now with Justice David Souter retiring after almost 20 years on the highest court, President Obama has a decision to make. Near the top of his list include Constitutional scholars, circuit court judges, and chief law professors.

However, disconcerting to some conservatives is the fact that the President is considering Code Pink founder Medea Benjamin for the Court. Benjamin has been outspoken in her criticisms of the Iraq War, which she has compared to Nazi aggression against Poland and to slavery.

"This would be a bold and gracious move," Benjamin said in an email response, "If I was chosen, or any other member of the anti-war movement, we can make certain that the criminal excesses of the Bush regime are not repeated."

Benjamin said that her top priority on the top court would be to "return us to a nation of laws." This would include anti-torture and anti-war rulings. When asked if members of the Bush Administration should come before the Court for war crimes trial, she said, "without [a] doubt."

Senator Obama met with Benjamin twelve times during his tenure in the US Senate, including in March 2006, when he called her a "courageous, principled leader." In 2007 he attended an anti-war dinner in which Ms. Benjamin spoke for twenty minutes. During this period, she called the United States "the new fascist hyperpower" and called President Bush a "scumbag." Senator Obama applauded at the close of her speech.

Benjamin has been very outspoken on gun control. When asked in 2008 about the subject, she replied that guns were responsible for the vast majority of crime in the nation. She fervently supports the assault weapons ban and has called for tighter restrictions on the selling and ownership of firearms.

President Obama is expected to make his decision soon, but choosing Benjamin is uncertain. When asked if the President was going to nominate her, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said simply, "No comment."