WASHINGTON, February 10, 2003 - Nine years after Bill Clinton filled the last Supreme Court vacancy with pro-abortion feminist Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the next expected retirees remain Chief Justice William Rehnquist, 78, and Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, 72. Many predict that Bush could fill a future vacancy with the court’s first Hispanic justice, such as Bush advisor Alberto Gonzales, appellate Judge Emilio M. Garza of Texas, and lawyer Miguel Estrada. But Bush could also throw a curve ball at partisan, race-obsessed Democrats by nominating California Supreme Court Justice Janice Rogers Brown, making her the court’s third woman and second African-American. She is a conservative black women who has ruled against affirmative action and so-called “abortion rights.” The choice would also echo George Bush Sr.‘s 1991 appointment of Clarence Thomas, a black conservative, to replace liberal ideologue Thurgood Marshall. At the time, the move disarmed Democrats, who hated Thomas’s philosophy but who, in the Senate confirmation process, felt they could not vote against a black. For MSNBC coverage see: http://www.msnbc.com/news/870468.asp