Next Presidential Beer Summit to Include Supreme Court and Ninth Circuit

In a move that will likely solidify his emerging reputation as bartender-in-chief, President Barack Obama announced this week that he plans to host a second beer summit sometime this fall. This time around, President Obama has decided to invite members of the Supreme Court and the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to sit across from each other and hash thing out. Buoyed by the success of his meeting with prominent Harvard scholar Louis Gates and police Sargeant James Crowley, the President said he hopes to encourage “positive dialogue” between the two often bickering judicial panels.

According to White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, “the President is looking forward to facilitating a friendly, thoughtful conversation between two important institutions that very rarely see eye-to-eye.” The numbers don’t lie; during the Supreme Court's 2008-2009 term, the “Left Coast” court was affirmed in full only once and was reversed a devastating thirteen times. This has caused some commentators to dub the Ninth Circuit a “rogue court,” while others have argued that there should be two Supreme Courts, one to hear cases from the Ninth Circuit and another to hear all other cases.

While Mr. Obama is a trained lawyer, he seems keenly aware that the Constitution requires him to be a passive participant in the meeting. “Mainly, he intends to be there for the photo op and the peanuts and to give the judges a disapproving glance if the talks stall. In other words, the President will be playing the role of former President George W. Bush for a day,” quipped Gibbs.

The presence of newly minted Justice Sonia Sotomayor should help break the ice at the meeting. Some judicial analysts believe some of Sotomayor’s past “out there” opinions should help make the members of the Ninth Circuit feel more comfortable. Other commentators are anxious to see if President Obama has any success at getting Justice Clarence Thomas to open up.

If the meeting is not successful at bringing the Ninth Circuit “back into the fold,” some believe that the President may ask former President Bill Clinton to get involved. According to one anonymous White House staffer, “after what he did in North Korea, we can only imagine he’d hit a home run out in California.”