Marshall Rothstein CC KC (born December 25, 1940) is a former Puisne Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada.
Asked about it in an interview with Canada's CPAC public affairs station, Rothstein stated: "As lawyers, and as judges, we tend to live in a pretty enclosed world.
"[3]Upon graduating from the University of Manitoba and passing his bar exams, Rothstein went to work for the firm of Thorvaldson, Eggerston, Saunders and Mauro.
"[5] Rothstein was one of the candidates (the others being Peter MacKinnon and Constance Hunt) recommended by a committee convened by the outgoing Liberal government to be appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada, following John C. Major's retirement from the bench in early 2006.
[6] Prime Minister Stephen Harper chose Rothstein for the Governor General to appoint to the top court.
[8] Many Canadian conservatives had long been critical of the process of appointing judges to the Supreme Court of Canada, wherein the Prime Minister is the sole advisor of the Governor General in the matter, and though he or she consults legal experts, no input is given from other (especially opposition) politicians.
Shortly after Prime Minister Harper put Rothstein's name forward, Harper acted on his promise to create an Ad Hoc Committee to Review a Nominee for the Supreme Court of Canada, a new creation intended to allow the nominee to face questioning by members of the Canadian Parliament, similar in spirit to the Senate judicial hearings that occur as part of the Supreme Court appointment process in the United States.
Though his name was drawn from a short list whose compilation had been led by the previous Liberal administration, Rothstein was generally considered to be the most conservative of the three nominees with respect to the role he believed judges play in the political system.
The hearing lent support to that view: when asked about his judicial philosophy, Rothstein stated "I'm not sure that I would be comfortable thinking that judges should be advancing the law with a social agenda in mind.