Hillary Clinton Would Consider Appointing President Obama to Supreme Court
Clinton called the prospect of the president sitting on the court a "great idea.
DECORAH, IOWA -- A second Clinton administration could mean a future Justice Barack Obama.
At a campaign event in Deocorah, Iowa on Tuesday, Hillary Clinton lit up when a voter asked her if she would consider appointing the president to the Supreme Court should she win the White House.
"Wow, what a great idea. No one has ever suggested that to me, I love that, wow," the Democratic presidential candidate responded. "He may have a few other things to do but I tell you that's a great idea."
Clinton went on to talk about how the next president could have to appoint up to three Supreme Court justices, but she then circled back.
"I would certainly take that under advisement," she told the crowd of 450 people inside a ballroom at the Winn Hotel about a potential Justice Obama. "I mean he’s brilliant, and he can set forth an argument, and he was a law professor, so he’s got all the credentials."
"Now we do have to get a Democratic Senate to get him confirmed so you’re going to have to help me on that, OK?" she added.
In 2014, in an interview with the New Yorker, President Obama seemed unsure when asked whether he would consider a position on the Supreme Court.
“I love the law, intellectually,” Obama said, “I love nutting out these problems, wrestling with these arguments. I love teaching. I miss the classroom and engaging with students. But I think being a Justice is a little bit too monastic for me. Particularly after having spent six years and what will be eight years in this bubble, I think I need to get outside a little bit more.”
Clinton’s comments on Tuesday come the same week President Obama -- who has yet to endorse any candidate in the primary -- praised his former secretary of state in an interview with Politico.
“She had to do everything that I had to do, except, like Ginger Rogers, backwards in heels,” Obama said, reflecting on Clinton’s 2008 race for the president. “She had to wake up earlier than I did because she had to get her hair done. She had to, you know, handle all the expectations that were placed on her.”