NEXT IN LINE

If Roberts gets confirmed, Bush will next have to choose another replacement for O’Connor—and two distinguished lawyers with Harvard ties are said to be at the top of Bush’s short list.

Some speculate that the most consequential nomination for the court will in fact be the justice who replaces O’Connor, who was generally regarded as the swing vote that will determine the future direction of the Court.

“Swapping Roberts for Rehnquist thus leaves the Court’s ideological balance pretty much intact,” Fallon wrote in an e-mail. “O’Connor was pretty conservative, but she was right in the center of the Supreme Court on which she served.”

The first of the two Harvard alums being considered to replace O’Connor is Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, who received a degree from HLS in 1982. Gonzales, who previously served as White House Counsel, has long been a close friend and confidant of the president. The son of Mexican immigrants, Gonzales grew up in a poor household that did not even have a telephone until he was in high school.

However, groups on both sides of the political spectrum oppose Gonzales. Right-wing groups want a stronger conservative to replace O’Connor, and many liberals object to some of his work as Attorney General and White House Counsel, which included taking part in discussions justifying the torture of prisoners.

The other potential nominee with Harvard connections is Learned Hand Professor of Law Mary Ann Glendon, who has been on the faculty at HLS since 1986. Loeb University Professor Laurence H. Tribe ’62 told the Crimson in July that Glendon “would be an inspired if unlikely choice.”

A noted legal scholar, Glendon teaches classes on human rights, legal theory, and comparative law, and has authored several books, including “Abortion and Divorce in Western Law.” A devout Catholic, she has been appointed to several positions by the Vatican including heading the Vatican delegation to the Fourth U.N. Women’s Conference in 1995.

“Mary Ann is an extraordinary scholar, teacher, and colleague,” HLS Dean Elena Kagan said in July. “She makes Harvard Law School a better place every day she’s here, and she would be hugely missed if she were to leave us for the judiciary.”

—Staff writer Adam M. Guren can be reached at guren@fas.harvard.edu.who worked