It sounds like the president has an interesting range of candidates before him. Which one of them he'll settle on no one knows, but we do know he has promised nominees who represent his judicial philosophy like Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas. No president in recent memory has done such a great job of choosing jurists who are faithful to the Constitution.
Quotes about jurists (6 Quotes)
They are widely respected among the bench and bar nationally for being careful jurists, faithful to the Constitution and proponents of judicial restraint, ... They have so much in common substantively that their differences are more stylistic.
This president has kept no promise more faithfully than his promise in 2000 and again in 2004 that he would nominate only strict constructionist, original intent jurists to the Supreme Court, ... In the face of unprecedented obstructionism, led especially by former Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle in the last term, this president has held fast to his promises and nominated scores of sterling and extremely competent judges.
Handed a once-in-a-generation opportunity to return the Supreme Court to constitutionalism, George W. Bush passed over a dozen of the finest jurists of his day -- to name his personal lawyer,
Would any of his aides have the nerve to tell him that as Supreme Court jurists go, Gonzales would be mediocre - and not a solid bet to move the court in a constitutionalist direction ... Would any of them have the nerve to explain to the president that a Gonzales nomination would utterly demoralize many of his supporters, who are sticking with him and his party, through troubles in Iraq and screw-ups with Hurricane Katrina, precisely because they want a few important things out of a Bush presidency - and one of these is a more conservative court
My sense is that jurists from other nations around the world understand that our court occupies a very special place in the American system, and that the court is rather well regarded in comparison, perhaps, to their own.