SCOTUS Hopefuls Face Intrusive Interrogation

President Obama’s potential picks to replace Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who died Feb. 13, are already undergoing an exhaustive background check courtesy of White House lawyers unafraid to ask intensely personal questions to avoid public scandal. In what the AP calls “the nation’s most thorough background check,” nothing is off-limits: taxes, writings, business dealings, medical history, sexual history are all considerations for the President as he seeks for the candidate most likely to survive the nomination process. Justice Anthony Kennedy endured more than 10 hours of FBI interviews, and a three-hour interview with the attorney general and White House counsel, during which he was asked if he’d ever had kinky sex, shoplifted, associated with groups like the Klu Klux Klan, abused a girlfriend, or hurt an animal. “The idea that you miss something that later torpedoed the nomination – that’s a nightmare,” said Jack Quinn, former White House counsel to President Bill Clinton.