To Gadol Hadorah: I well remember Republican Senator Roman Hruska’s plea for mediocrity, but I have forgotten the last part of the comment you referred to, i.e., that all judges cannot be Brandeis’es, Cardozo’s or Frankfurter’s. It is curious that he picked 3 Jewish justice of the Supreme Court to single out as examples of some elite group. I have no idea whether Hruska was being anti-Semitic, anti-elitiest, pro-stupid or something else altogether.
For what it is worth, I think we are overdue for a justice who is not from the 5 Boroughs (e.g., Kagan, Sotomayor, Ginsburg, Scalia), the Northeast, Harvard or Yale or a prep school. The possible nominees so far include a woman who went to a state university and state university law school. I think her time is long overdue, whether she is black, white or other.