Another judge withdraws name from SCOTUS consideration

Federal Appellate Judge Adalberto Jordan has taken himself out of consideration to become President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, CNN reported Wednesday. 

The Miami-based judge was reportedly a contender to fill the vacancy left by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia and would have been the first Cuban-American to sit on the high court. 

{mosads}“He pulled himself out of consideration,” Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) told CNN, explaining that Jordan was dealing with a “personal, family situation” involving his mother.

“I talked to him … I think that’s unfortunate because he is squeaky clean,” Nelson said.

Jordan is the third potential candidate to ask the White House not to be considered for the open seat on the Supreme Court. 

Attorney General Loretta Lynch, who was rumored to be on Obama’s list, said Tuesday she asked the White House to take her out of consideration for the open seat on the court. 

Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval (R) took himself out of the running late last month after it was reported he was being vetted.

A fierce partisan battle has erupted over replacing Scalia, who was the leader of the court’s conservative wing. 

Obama is moving forward with the nomination process despite Republican demands that he not put forth a nominee.  

Republicans have said the next president, and not Obama, should fill Scalia’s seat. They have suggested that whoever the president nominates would receive rough treatment from members of the Senate. 

The president has begun to interview potential nominees, NPR reported late Tuesday. 

Candidates being interviewed include Merrick Garland, the chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia; Judge Sri Srinivasan, of the same court; 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Paul Watford; Judge Jane Kelly, of the 8th Circuit; and U.S. District Court Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, who serves in Washington, according to sources close to process. 

Jordan’s name was not on the list obtained by NPR. 

The judge’s background and experience, however, fit with the criteria Obama has publicly laid out for selecting a replacement for Scalia. 

The Senate voted 94-5 in 2012 to confirm him to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. The Havana-born judge would also add diversity to the Supreme Court. 

Born shortly after Fidel Castro’s communist revolution in Cuba, Jordan fled to the U.S. with his family as a young child. 

He clerked for Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, a Republican appointee, and worked as a federal prosecutor before being nominated as a district court judge by President Bill Clinton in 1999.