Sri Srinivasan: Supreme Court justice in the making?
This story was first published on May 23, 2013. Srikanth Srinivasan is seen as a possible nominee by President Obama to the Supreme Court.
WASHINGTON — The issue before the Supreme Court was the Defense of Marriage Act, and the smooth-talking native of India representing the United States of America at the podium had a tough argument to make.
Why, Chief Justice John Roberts wanted to know, was the government not only refusing to defend the law, which denies federal benefits to legally married same-sex couples, but arguing the other side — all while continuing to enforce it?
From his post feet away from the nine justices March 27, Srikanth Srinivasan (SREE-kont SREE-nee-vah-sun) calmly explained what Roberts called a "totally unprecedented" situation. Along the way, the mathematics professor's son sprinkled in references to numerators, denominators and algorithms, the statutes 28 U.S.C. 530(d) and 28 U.S.C. 1254, and the precedents established by INS v.Chadha, United States v. Lovett and Turner Broadcasting v. FCC.
Without notes.
It was just the latest chapter in a stellar legal career that has taken the 46-year-old litigator known as "Sri" to a seat on the nation's second most powerful court — and given him instant buzz as a potential Supreme Court justice himself.
The Senate unanimously confirmed Srinivasan on Thursday as the first new judge since 2006 on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The vote was 97-0.
For President Obama, it was no small feat. His judicial nominees have languished longer in the Senate than those of his predecessors, and his first choice for the D.C. Circuit court was blocked by Republicans.
"Sri is a trailblazer who personifies the best of America," Obama said, noting Srinivasan will be the nation's first circuit court judge of South Asian descent.
For Srinivasan, it was a walk in the park. Following close on the withdrawal of New York prosecutor Caitlin Halligan, he sailed unanimously through the Senate Judiciary Committee and the full Senate with what Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, one of the Senate's most conservative members, acknowledged was "broad bipartisan support."
"Sri is undoubtedly considered one of the best three or four Supreme Court advocates in the country," says Walter Dellinger, a former acting solicitor general under President Bill Clinton. The first time Srinivasan argued a case before the high court, Dellinger says, he took a single sheet of paper to the podium so he would not appear overconfident. The paper was blank.
That an Obama nominee could be so quickly and completely embraced by Republicans is a testament to Srinivasan's bipartisan credentials and collegiality. Current and former colleagues, as well as family members and friends, describe him as a doting father, loyal friend, fanatical University of Kansas basketball fan and open-minded attorney who doesn't come to each case with a predisposition.
"He is attracted to persuasive arguments, regardless of their source," says Irv Gornstein, executive director of the Supreme Court Institute at Georgetown University, who worked with Srinivasan in the Solicitor General's office and at the Washington law firm O'Melveny & Myers. When they first became colleagues in the Solicitor General's office, he says, "I thought, 'Supreme Court justice.'"
That's saying a lot for a man whose father was born in the southern Indian hamlet of Mela Thiruvenkatanathapuram, became a college mathematics professor and moved the family to Berkeley, Calif., in the late 1960s. Eventually settling in Lawrence, Kan., the Srinivasans quickly became so Americanized that they would travel long distances to see their beloved Jayhawks move through the NCAA brackets.
Santa Clara University law professor Bradley Joondeph, who married one of Srinivasan's younger sisters, recalls living with the family for a year in Lawrence. Though he was under no pressure to convert to Hinduism, Joondeph quips, "they were rather inflexible when it came to college basketball."
The son eventually made his way to Stanford, where he earned three degrees, then clerked for 4th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson and Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor before launching his own career.
Stanford Law School Dean Elizabeth Magill recalls a speech Srinivasan gave to the school's graduates in which he spoke in self-deprecating fashion about the lessons they would learn later in life. To illustrate, he recalled the commencement speech he gave as class valedictorian to the Lawrence High School graduating class of 1985 — delivered as a rap.
"There's no one who has worked with him in any capacity ever who doesn't think he's the best lawyer they've ever worked with, and the most decent person," says Magill, who clerked with Srinivasan at the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., a generation ago.
Today, Srinivasan is principal deputy solicitor general in the office that represents the nation in court. He has argued more than two dozen cases at the Supreme Court, first for President George W. Bush's Justice Department, then for Obama's. He's won accolades from a dozen former solicitors general and principal deputies dating back to the Reagan administration and from 28 of his fellow law clerks from the 1997 Supreme Court term.
"He takes a case where the facts and the law lead him," the former solicitors general and deputies wrote in a letter to the Judiciary Committee. "He is also a terrific listener who values hearing all sides of an argument before formulating a final position."
Dellinger, who worked with Srinivasan at the solicitor general's office and in private law practice, recalls his "extraordinary personal touch."
"Sri is a favorite of everyone who works in any building in which he has held a job, from the cleaning staff to the head of the company," Dellinger says. "It takes forever to walk with Sri through a building in which he works — everyone who works there in any position wants to talk with him."
"He is absolutely a brilliant thinker, gifted lawyer, fair-minded person, generous and warm," says Lisa Kern Griffin, a Duke University professor who clerked with Srinivasan at the Supreme Court. "He is one of those rare people who has the ability to get along with anyone."
That personality trait matters on the basketball court, where he coaches his 11-year-old twin daughter and son, as well as at the Supreme Court. And it will matter on the D.C. Circuit, described by Marge Baker of the liberal advocacy group People for the American Way as "the most important court most Americans have never heard of."
The court has responsibility for reviewing administrative decisions of federal departments and agencies, from environmental and labor regulations to the war on terrorism and treatment of enemy combatants. Its recent decision blocking Obama's appointments to the National Labor Relations Board during a Senate recess is certain to be reviewed by the Supreme Court in its next term.
"It's such a great thing to see his ascent to the court," says Alejandro Mayorkas, director of U.S. citizenship and immigration services for the Department of Homeland Security and a former law firm colleague. "He has a deep and abiding respect for the law, and he's got a wonderful temperament and disposition for being a judge."
The appellate court has been a stepping-stone for past Supreme Court justices, including Roberts, Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The 11-seat court has three other vacancies, but Republicans have vowed to hold the line after Srinivasan's confirmation, rather than let Obama flip what has been a reliably conservative court. Democrats will test that vow.
"You have a majority in that court that is wreaking havoc with the country," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Wednesday. "For the first time in 230 years, they rule the president can't make a recess appointment. ... There is a crisis, and we need to do something about it."
For now, Srinivasan is the bipartisan solution.
"He is not really ideologically driven," Joondeph says. Rather, "he is sincerely devoted to the craft."
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