Viet Dinh for the Supreme Court.

James Taranto puts forward the name of a true American.

Justice DinhNow that President Bush has announced that Judge John Roberts will replace Chief Justice William Rehnquist, he must appoint a replacement for Roberts as a replacement for Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. As Manuel Miranda noted yesterday, the common assumption has been that he will choose either a woman or a member of an ethnic minority, especially a Hispanic. We'd like to suggest a candidate who fits the "minority" requirement, although he isn't a Hispanic: Viet Dinh.

Dinh is a professor at Georgetown Law School and served for two years as an assistant attorney general. His academic specialties, according to his Justice Department bio, cover a broad range: constitutional law, corporation law, and the law and economics of development. The Georgetown press release announcing his return to academia in 2003 notes his governmental accomplishments:

Dinh led the Justice Department's Office of Legal Policy since May 31, 2001, and in that time, he contributed to a number of key Administration policy initiatives most notably in the drafting and implementing of the USA PATRIOT Act. He also spearheaded the revision of the Attorney General's Guidelines, which govern the conduct of federal law enforcement activities and national security investigations. In addition, Dinh represented the Department of Justice in the process of selecting and confirming judges to the federal bench, securing the confirmation of 23 United States Court of Appeals and 100 District Court judges in the past two years.

Why Viet Dinh? He's young: 37 to be exact. If he lives as long as William Rehnquist, he could still be on the court in 2048. He has a compelling personal story: born in Saigon, South Vietnam, in 1968, and he came to America as a refugee at age 10 after his country fell to the communists. His experience in the Justice Department would give the Democrats a chance to highlight their compassion for terrorists, something Republicans would no doubt appreciate too.

And he would be the first Asian Supreme Court justice, which means the Democrats, who are sure to come under pressure to wage a futile campaign against any Bush nominee, could alienate a small but up-for-grabs voting bloc in the process.

A Dinh nomination could also create awkward situations for both the Democrats' 2004 and 2008 presidential nominees. John Kerry* began his political career by confessing (albeit probably falsely) to having committed war crimes against Dinh's countrymen. He also made comments about the Vietnamese that to a 21st-century ear sound shockingly racist:

Most [Vietnamese] people didn't even know the difference between communism and democracy. They only wanted to work in rice paddies without helicopters strafing them and bombs with napalm burning their villages and tearing their country apart.

As for Hillary Clinton, she cast the lone dissenting vote when the Senate confirmed Dinh to the Justice Department in May 2001. Her opposition to Dinh was personal, not racial: During Clinton's co-presidency, Dinh worked for the Whitewater independent counsel's office. On the same day, Sen. Clinton also cast the only vote against Michael Chertoff's confirmation to another Justice Department post; Chertoff had worked for the Senate's Whitewater committee. In June 2003 Mrs. Clinton again cast the lone dissenting vote when Chertoff was confirmed as a judge on the Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

But this February Hillary buried the hatchet and voted for Chertoff when the president chose him for a high-profile position, secretary of homeland security. We're guessing she'd do the same thing for Justice Dinh--but she'd be choking back bile all the while.

* The haughty, French-looking Massachusetts Democrat, who by the way served in Vietnam.