The buzz in D.C. is that Edith Brown Clement is a strong possibility for the Supreme Court nomination expected this week. Some quick bullet points on her after the jump to help provide some background. It is widely believed that President Bush is looking to replace O'Connor with a woman, and that interest took a number of the more obvious choices off of his list. She looks like a very strong contender for the open seat on the Court. Her record as a jurist makes it hard to determine the extent of her judicial conservatism, but several of her decisions make it clear that she is no Sandra Day O'Connor.
More after the cut...
Edith Brown Clement Info:
B.A. - University of Alabama, 1969
J.D. - Tulane University 1972
1973-1975 Law clerk for Judge Christenberry, U.S.D.C. E.D. La.
1975 - 1991 Jones, Walker, Waechter, Potivent, Carrere, & Denegre (law firm), specializing in maritime law
1991 - Nominated to the Louisiana Eastern District Court
2001 - Nominated to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals
- Strong advocate of the federalist revolution
- Favors limitation of Congressional power
- Conservative jurist
- Has a narrow view of plaintiff "standing" - making it harder for plaintiffs to seek a remedy from the courts
- Has authored several opinions that show a lack of regard for jury awards for pain and suffering
- Has been criticized by fellow jurists for substituting her own view for those of trial courts and juries
- Longtime member of the The Federalist Society, a conservative legal group
- Wrote an opinion arguing that parts of the Americans with Disabilities Act was unconstitutional as applied to state and local governments. Justice O'Connor's judgment on a similar case was the opposite. The case O'Connor and the Supreme Court ruled on was well known because the disabled plaintiff had to climb up the County Courthouse was well known because the disabled plaintiff had to climb up the County Courthouse steps for a court appearance because there was no handicap access to the building. He refused to climb again, and was arrested for not appearing in court. O'Connor and a majority of the Supreme Court held that the disabled deserved equal access to the courts.Tenn. V Lane; "Jurors Side with Disabled in Lawsuit" - MSNBC
Notable cases:
Re Monumental(pdf): she authored a dissent that would denied class certification for to a group of African Americans who wanted to sue 180 insurance companies for charging them more than white customers for the same insurance policies.
Brown v. Parker Drilling Offshore Oil Corp (pdf): she vacated a jury award for a man who had been injured working on an offshore rig. He injured his back in the incident, and because he had not told his employer prior to his hiring that he had been treated at an emergency room previously for a back injury, Clement felt that the company owed him nothing for injuries incurred on the job.
Volger v. Blackmore (pdf): wrote the majority opinion drastically reducing the award to the family of a mother and daughter who died in a car accident, in part, she asserted, because there was not enough evidence that the daughter had experienced pain and suffering before dying. ( A fellow Fifth Circuit Judge criticized her for violating the deference to jury verdicts rule).
Planned Parenthood of Houston v. Sanchez (pdf): upheld a Texas statute that restricted the distribution of federal family-planning money to any organization that performed abortions or participated in abortion-related activities.