Srikanth Srinivasan Could be the First Hindu to Serve on the Supreme Court

By C Barnett --
17 Feb 2016 --

Srinivasan, a Hindu, is expected to be nominated by President Obama to replace Antonin Scalia.

The death of a serving U.S. Supreme Court judge has ignited acrimony among Republicans and Democrats on the subject of whether a new judge should be nominated by President Barack Obama. The Democratic President is in his last term.

Srikanth Srinivasan Could be the First Hindu to Serve on the Supreme Court.[/tweetthis]

President Obama has already declared that he will nominate a substitute for Antonin Scalia, the Supreme Court judge who passed away recently. He was 79 years of age and did a controversial tenure during which he navigated his court to the right by a number of pronouncements.

Partisans on both sides of the Democrat-Republican divide are searching through records to understand the ideological bent of Srikanth Srinivasan, an Indian American who is expected to be nominated to the bench by President Obama. Even as important Republicans have promised to bar a nomination by Obama, Srinivasan is expected to sail through. This is because he previously went 97-0 through the Senate when the Democrats controlled White House installed him in D.C. Court of Appeals, arguably the second the country's second most powerful court- in 2013. It is also advantageous that neither, liberals or conservatives have anything bad to say against the man. In fact, he comes across as mostly “non-ideological” when his judicial and legal career is reviewed.

Sri Srinivasan is also a Hindu. At the time of swearing in to U.S. Court of Appeals for District of Columbia Circuit, he had put his hand on the Bhagavad Gita, the Hindu holy book. There is a certain appeal to his elevation as Scalia's replacement in the U.S. Supreme Court. He has previously clerked for Sandra Day O'Connor, the former Justice of the Supreme Court and has argued a large number of cases in high court as the deputy solicitor general. He has a reputation as a moderate and there is striking ease in which the Senate had confirmed him to appeals court.

America, get to know Sri Srinivasan. We may be hearing a lot more about him… https://t.co/5T4IGRPuAN
— Philip Rucker (@PhilipRucker) February 13, 2016

Srikanth Srinivasan was born in India and his family immigrated to the United States from Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu, a state in South India. The U.S. Supreme Court has a total of eight judges other than chief justice. The court has given split verdicts on a number of sensitive issues, with the conservative view having a majority of one vote. When Scalia passed away, the court is split evenly and stakes are extremely high for both the progressive and conservative camps.