Anna Nicole and the Bush Admin's Suitors

Zaftig reality-TV star and Texan Anna Nicole Smith is going to the Supreme Court with the Bush administration's blessing, reports Forbes. No, the undulating diet spokesgal isn't the next High Court nominee--she's trying to get half of the estate of her late husband, oilman J. Howard Marshall, who kicked the bucket in 1994 (and a year after getting hitched to Anna Nicole at age 89).

Marshall's son, E. Pierce, inherited his father's dough, but Anna Nicole sued, claiming she was promised half. A Texas probate court ruled against her on that claim. But when she filed for bankruptcy in California, a federal court in the Golden State ruled she was entitled to halfsies.

Enter the Bush admin as a friend of the 1993 Playmate of the Year:

Given the lack of a bequest and the long history of probate courts having the last word in such disputes, Marshall would seem to have the edge in Marshall v. Marshall (Smith's legal name is Vickie Lynn Marshall). But the 1993 Playmate of the Year has an unlikely ally: the Bush administration. Anxious about the erosion of federal court jurisdiction in these matters, the solicitor general has filed an amicus brief on Smith's behalf. They couldn't make this stuff up.

Whole bit here.

Unlikely connection to Bush v. Gore here.

Bush's squirrely relationship to federalism discussed here.