Cory Booker for the Supreme Court? Why he might (and might not) be considered

Justice Cory Booker? It's a long shot, but his name's being floated.

Speculation the senator from New Jersey and former New York mayor could be considered for the seat left vacant by Antonin Scalia's death began even before The New York times put Booker on short list alongside notable judges and California's attorney general.

It says of his legal qualifications:

A first-term Democratic member of the United States Senate. He was sworn into office as New Jersey’s junior senator in 2013, after serving as mayor of Newark from 2006 to 2013. Mr. Booker, who is African-American, attended Stanford University before winning a Rhodes Scholarship to attend the University of Oxford. He earned his law degree from Yale Law School.

For his part, Booker's publicly playing down the possibility.

"It's humbling that anyone would mention me as a possible Supreme Court nominee, but I want to be very clear that my focus is 100 percent on doing the job I was elected to do — representing the people of New Jersey in the Senate," he said in a statement released Monday.

Unlike some of his Republican colleagues in the Senate, the Democrat's made clear he believes it's appropriate for President Barack Obama to nominate a replacement for Scalia. Several Republicans in the Senate, as well as several Republicans seeking to replace Obama next year, have argued the appointment should be made by the next president.

A piece by PolitickerNJ.com notes Booker's name has also been floated as a potential vice presidential candidate to run alongside Hillary Clinton.

A Booker appointment would give Gov. Chris Christie the opportunity to replace him with a Republican in the Senate, and might "help President Obama clear away some of Republicans’ guaranteed opposition," the report states.

But multiple legal experts said while Booker might make sense politically, he doesn't have the experience to  make him a front-runner for the bench.

“Cory Booker is a brilliant legal mind,” Attorney Joseph Hayden, former deputy state attorney general and law secretary to the Chief Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court, told PolitickerNJ. “He has got a keen knowledge of the constitution and civil rights issues, and is a national leader in criminal justice reform. But I would think that the president would be more inclined to pick a member of the judiciary with proven experience on the federal bench.”