A Jayhawk Fan, Sure, But Kansas Senators Aren't Ready to Support Srinivasan (Or Any Nominee)

U.S. Supreme Court shortlister Judge Sri Srinivasan may be one of Kansas’ favorite sons in Washington, but the state’s two U.S. senators, both Republicans, said they would stick with their party’s refusal to hold hearings for the Lawrence-raised appellate jurist even if President Barack Obama nominates him to the late Justice Antonin Scalia’s seat.

Sen. Pat Roberts told The National Law Journal last week that his opposition to confirmation hearings would not be “because of anything about Kansas or anything pertaining to” Srinivasan, one of several judges mentioned as possible picks for the high court.

“My stand on this doesn’t rise on the merits of the individual. It’s the procedure. And you’ve got to let the people decide,” Roberts said. His stance reflects the reasoning behind the near-lockstep position that Senate Republicans took after Scalia died on a hunting trip at a Texas ranch on Feb. 13.

Roberts’ junior colleague, Sen. Jerry Moran, seemed less enthusiastic about his leadership’s marching orders, but he indicated he had no power to protest the position that Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, and all 11 Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee laid out.

“That decision has already been made,” Moran told the NLJ on Monday. “If the president nominates somebody, I’ll consider them by my constitutional responsibilities, but it’s my understanding there will be no hearings, there will be no meetings. So I think the likelihood of [hearings] happening is nil.”

Srinivasan immigrated with his family from India to Kansas when he was 4 years old. He lived in Lawrence, where his father was a math professor at the University of Kansas. Srinivasan lived in Kansas until he went to Stanford University for college and law school.

And even though he is now a Virginia resident—home state Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, both Democrats, introduced him at his D.C. Circuit confirmation hearings—Srinivasan’s Kansas connection endures through his loyalty to one of the state’s more unifying institutions: University of Kansas basketball.

In a 2013 profile of Srinivasan, Stanford Lawyer magazine reported that “outside of his legal practice, Srinivasan is known as a sports nut, in particular about basketball, which he plays and watches avidly.” He told the magazine the Kansas Jayhawks were a “lifelong obsession.” At his investiture, mention of the Jayhawks came up often.

The Jayhawk connection may have been enough for Moran, who earned his undergraduate and law degrees from University of Kansas, to hedge his opposition. But Roberts was resolute.