Sri Srinivasan one of two men being considered for US SC bench by Barack Obama

Washington: Indian-American legal luminary Sri Srinivasan is among the two persons zeroed in on by US President Barack Obama for the post of Supreme Court judge. Obama is likely to choose either Srinivasan or Merrick Garland as his pick for the Supreme Court nominee and could announce his decision as early as Wednesday. [caption id=“attachment_2678444” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Sri Srinivasan. Reuters[/caption] If chosen, 48-year-old Srinivasan would become the first Indian-American to be on the nine-member bench of the Supreme Court. A source confirmed that Srinivasan and Garland, 63, are among the most possible names to fill the vacancy generated following the sudden death of Justice Antonin Scalia last month. While Garland has been the chief judge of the Washington appeals court since 1997, Srinivasan was appointed to the DC Court of Appeals in 2013. Paul Watford, who serves on the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals in California, is also considered to be in the running, CNN reported, adding that Obama has interviewed all of them. “The groundwork has been methodical and is done,” a source was quoted as saying by CNN, which, along with other US media outlets, reported that the White House has finished the “critical work” of vetting potential candidates for the US Supreme Court nomination. All media reports put Srinivasan among the most likely candidate. In a bitterly divided Senate — wherein the Republican leadership has threatened to block Obama’s nominee — Srinivasan has an advantage because it was only in 2013 that he was confirmed by the Senate with a record 97-0 votes. Srinivasan was sworn in as judge of the second most powerful court of the US on September 26, 2013, making him the first Indian-American to be on the bench of the US Courts of Appeal for the District of Columbia Circuit. Srinivasan received his BA with honors and distinction in 1989 from Stanford University and his JD with distinction in 1995 from Stanford Law School, where he was elected to Order of the Coif and served as an editor of the Stanford Law Review. He also holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, which he received along with his JD in 1995. Srinivasan’s mother is from Chennai and father was from Tirunelveli. PTI