Obama has no interest in being a federal judge

President Obama is not interested in becoming a judge after wrapping up his tenure at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., he said in an interview published Monday in The New Yorker.

{mosads}Obama, a former constitutional law professor at the University of Chicago, said that he loved the law “intellectually.”

“I love nutting out these problems, wrestling with these arguments. I love teaching. I miss the classroom and engaging with students,” he said.

“But I think being a Justice is a little bit too monastic for me. Particularly after having spent six years and what will be eight years in this bubble, I think I need to get outside a little bit more.”

A move to the Supreme Court is not unprecedented for a president. William Howard Taft, who served before his election on the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, was appointed chief justice of the United States by President Warren G. Harding eight years after losing reelection.

But Obama indicated that the federal bench had never been something he was particularly interested in.

“When I got out of law school, I chose not to clerk,” Obama said. “Partly because I was an older student, but partly because I don’t think I have the temperament to sit in a chamber and write opinions.”

In the interview, Obama did boast that he had reshaped the federal judiciary through an emphasis on diversity with his nominations.

“I think there are some particular groups that historically have been underrepresented — like Latinos and Asian-Americans — that represent a larger and larger portion of the population. And so for them to be able to see folks in robes that look like them is going to be important. When I came into office, I think there was one openly gay judge who had been appointed. We’ve appointed 10.”

He also said he believed the Supreme Court’s recent decision not to hear arguments on lower court rulings overturning state gay marriage bans could be the most consequential judicial action of his presidency, comparing it to a 1967 ruling that found states could no longer prohibit interracial marriage.

“I think it really signals that, although the Court was not quite ready — it didn’t have sufficient votes to follow Loving v. Virginia and go ahead and indicate an equal-protection right across the board — it was a consequential and powerful signal of the changes that have taken place in society and that the law is having to catch up,” Obama said.

And Obama disputed Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s contention in a recent interview Elle that, if she resigned, Obama “could not successfully appoint anyone I would like to see in the Court.”

“We’ve got a pretty good track record,” he said. “We’ve got a couple of Supreme Court Justices confirmed who I think are doing outstanding work. My sense is that the Senate necessarily has to treat the Supreme Court nomination process differently than the circuit- or district-court nomination process—higher profile, people are paying attention.”

But, Obama said, “life tenure means she gets to decide, not anybody else, when she chooses to go.”