Below are bios of Obama's possible Supreme Court Justice picks. Most are taken from the American Bar Association Journal. I've listed only women for the obvious reason that Justice Souter's replacement will most certainly be a woman.
Because we are living in the 21st century. Because two women on the Supreme Court in the entire history of this nation is an abject embarrassment. Because half the lawyers in this country are women and the majority of law students are women. Because the majority of voters are women. Because one woman on the Supreme Court is absurd. Because one woman on the Supreme Court is an outrageous and misogynistic injustice
It's our turn. And Obama knows it. Any and all of Obama's appointments to the High Court should be and must be women. And she must be demonstrably and reliably liberal, as the retiring Justice David Souter certainly has been. I'm not sure these women are all that. They are, however, the names appearing on most everyone's short list.
Diane Wood -- Judge Wood reminds some of Justice Antonin Scalia; in her opinions, like his, seeds are often planted for future cases. A Clinton appointee to the appeals court, Wood is seen as one of the country’s smartest judges. She’s a liberal who has authored a fair amount of high-profile dissents in the conservative 7th Circuit. In 2002, one such case regarded an Indiana law mandating in-clinic counseling for women seeking abortions. Bucking the majority, Wood wrote that the law was burdensome to women, particularly those in rural areas.
Leah Ward Sears -- Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears has achieved a distinguished position in Georgia's history. She was the first African-American woman to serve as Superior Court Judge in Georgia. When appointed by the Governor of Georgia in February, 1992, she was the first woman and the youngest person ever to serve on Georgia's Supreme Court. Also, in retaining her appointed position as a Supreme Court Justice, Justice Sears became the first woman to win a contested state-wide election in Georgia.
Elena Kagan -- In 1999, President Clinton tapped Kagan for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, only to have the nomination blocked by the Senate Judiciary Committee, then controlled by Republicans. But many think an Obama administration wouldn’t hesitate to tap her for a vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court. As dean, she managed to steer Harvard Law’s first-year curriculum from a 130-year-old case law approach to a more modern problem-solving model, gaining unanimous approval for the plan in a 2006 faculty vote. Kagan, 48, whose academic work focused on First Amendment issues and administrative law, is considered a skilled consensus builder. She clerked for Judge Abner Mikva in the D.C. Circuit and Justice Thurgood Marshall in the Supreme Court, and held a series of policy positions in the Clinton administration.
Sonia Sotomayor -- A political centrist, the Bronx-born Sotomayor has been regarded as a potential high court nominee by several presidents, both Republican and Democrat. Reared by her widowed mother after the death of her father, a tool-and-die worker, she has an attractive life narrative and an even more attractive resumé. She was an editor of the Yale Law Review, did heavy lifting as a prosecutor under legendary New York County District Attorney Robert Morgenthau, and worked in private practice as an intellectual property litigator.She was first appointed to the federal bench by President George H.W. Bush, then to the appeals court by President Clinton. In 1995, she won the gratitude of baseball fans by issuing an injunction against team owners, setting the stage for the end of the eight-month strike that led to the cancellation of the 1994 World Series.
Kathleen M. Sullivan -- Sullivan, 53, was dean of Stanford Law School from 1999 to 2004, and in private practice she’s represented a wide variety of corporate clients and trade associations. But she may be more widely known for her pro bono work in high-profile cases involving civil rights and civil liberties. Considered a constitutional scholar with the ability to find clarity in complex legal concepts, Sullivan has argued four cases before the Supreme Court. She now chairs the national appellate practice group at Quinn Emanuel and is licensed to practice in California, Massachusetts and New York. Sullivan still teaches at Stanford, but she counts as her mentor Harvard professor Laurence Tribe, an avid Obama supporter.Fun facts: The Chief Justice of the Canadian Supreme Court is a woman. Of Canada's nine Supreme Court Justices, 4 are women. Of course, in the U.S., Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg is the one lone woman on the Supreme Court.
Feminist Politics Gender Supreme Court News David Souter SCOTUS Women Equal Representation
