Hillary Clinton will not accept Supreme Court position.

Already there is speculation that Hillary Clinton is being considered by President Obama to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Stevens. This morning Republican Senator Orrin Hatch fanned the flames by noting that he had heard Hillary’s name come up as a potential nominee:

“I even heard the name Hillary Clinton today, and that would be an interesting person in the mix,” Hatch said on NBC’s Today Show. “I happen to like Hillary Clinton, I think she’s done agood job for the Democrats — Secretary of State’s position,” Hatch said, “and I have high respect for her, and think a great deal of her.”

The receptivity to a Clinton nomination is predictably mixed. Juli Weiner, writing on the Vanity Fair web site, noted several enthusiastic endorsements of Hillary -

Slate’s Emily Bazelon wrote that “Clinton has all the makings of a full-throated, strong-minded liberal stalwart on the bench.” The Daily Beast’s Mark McKinnon agrees: “Stripping away the drama, the politics and psychobabble, she’d be a great choice for Obama and the Democrats. She’s as smart and as qualified as any prospect her party could nominate.” Seventy-one percent of NPR.com readers also say they would welcome a Clinton nomination.

In my report yesterday I included a comment from Outside the Beltway’s James Joyner that Hillary is too old for the Supreme Court:

Speculating on Supreme Court appointments is a great parlor game and throwing the “pick a politician” wildcard into the game is especially fun. Hillary would be confirmed easily, I’d think.  The 1990s are over and the controversies surrounding her have long since died down.  She was, by all accounts, a hard worker and excellent colleague in the Senate and she sailed to confirmation as Secretary of State.

But, even assuming Obama decides to bypass the recent trend of picking law professors and appeals court justices — preferably those with little history of taking controversial positions — I don’t think Hillary is the gal. She’s too old. Stevens was appointed by Gerald Ford 35 years ago.  He served the entirety of the presidencies of Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush plus the first half of Barack Obama’s first term.  That sort of longevity is the goal.

The bottom line, of course, is whether or not Hillary Clinton even wants to be nominated. The short answer is, “No, she doesn’t.”

If the hasn’t already expressed that position to Obama “with the greatest respect,” she will quickly do so if the rumors continue. Although all the positive reasons for seeing Hillary on the the Supreme Court are valid in my opinion, such a position does not fit into the lifelong paradigm of Hillary’s activist history. Sitting on the Court would push her into the darkness where she would no longer be the outspoken, out-front advocate that she has been her entire life.

Hillary is not too old for the Supreme Court. But she is too valuable a player in our political life to be stashed away in a black robe writing legal opinions, and she knows it.