Quotes of the Day: What is Obama Looking for in a Justice?

"It definitely is a test for the Obama administration, and for the president. It will reveal a lot about his feelings, his ideology, where he wants to take the court, where he wants to take the country. You expect them to want to have someone in place before the court’s next term begins in October. I would say the leading candidate — if there is one — is Judge Sonia Sotomayor." — George Stephanopoulos, on "Good Morning America," following news of Justice David Souter’s pending departure from the Supreme Court

"I think it’s true that we shouldn’t apply a strict litmus test and the most important thing in any judge is their capacity to provide fairness and justice to the American people…Now I would not provide a litmus test. But I am somebody who believes that Roe versus Wade was rightly decided. I think that abortion is a very difficult issue and it is a moral issue and one that I think good people on both sides can disagree on. But what ultimately I believe is that women in consultation with their families, their doctors, their religious advisers, are in the best position to make this decision. And I think that the Constitution has a right to privacy in it that shouldn’t be subject to state referendum, any more than our First Amendment rights are subject to state referendum, any more than many of the other rights that we have should be subject to popular vote…I will look for those judges who have an outstanding judicial record, who have the intellect, and who hopefully have a sense of what real-world folks are going through." — Candidate Barack Obama, October 2008

"We’re not the Typhoid Mary family, for goodness’ sake. We’ve been told we’re not contagious. We’re already past the seven-day mark for that." — Marc S. Griswold, lead advance agent for Energy Secretary Steven Chu during President Obama’s April visit to Mexico. Griswold caught swine flu, recovered and is back to work, but he and his family say his illness has sparked national security concerns, severely strained his relationship with his brother and put his family at the center of rumors and panic in his neighborhood.

"I know that there are some who will insist that bankruptcy, even for these limited purposes, is a step that should not have been taken. But it was unsustainable to let enormous liabilities remain on Chrysler’s books, and it was unacceptable to let a small group of speculators endanger Chrysler’s future by refusing to sacrifice like everyone else." — President Obama on the decision to move Chrysler through bankruptcy