Sudden death of Justice Antonin Scalia has triggered speculation that Indian origin Sri Srinivasan may be nominated to the US Supreme Court bench in the final year of Barack Obama's presidency as the US president announced he would fulfil his "consitutional duty" to announce as successor to Scalia.
48 year old Sri Srinivasan was nominated to the Federal judge in 2013, and it was confirmed by the Senate with a record 97-0 vote. He was sworn in as a judge of the US Courts of Appeal for the District of Columbia Circuit (The second most powerful court in the US).
Srinivasan was born in Chandigarh in 1967. His father hailed from Tamil Nadu, and after moving to the US, worked as a professor of mathematics at the University of Kansas. His mother worked in the computer science department of the university.
Srinivasan graduated from Stanford University in 1989 and Stanford Law School and Stanford Graduate School of Business in 1995. From 2011 to until his judicial appointment, Judge Srinivasan served as the Principal Deputy Solicitor General of the United States. He has also taught at Harvard Law School.
The Republican presidential candidates and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell declared that they would not cooperate with the President.
But, as Sri is considered to have a bipartisan support in the Congress, his popularity among both Democrats and Republican lawmakers could actually work in his favour.
