Who will President Obama appoint to replace US Supreme Court Justice David Souter? My money is on the girls! When even Laura Bush agrees the Court needs more girl power, you know that the pressure is on to fill the seat with with a well qualified woman. As well it should be! There are plenty of qualified, extraordinary, accomplished women ready for the appointment. Here are my top (as in, most likely) possible picks:
Sonia Sotomayor, 54, judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit. A Hispanic who could enjoy bipartisan support, she was appointed to the federal bench by President George H.W. Bush, but elevated to the New York-based appeals court by Pres. Bill Clinton. In a 2009 edition of Esquire Magazine, Judge Sotomayor was touted as a candidate for the country's highest court who would be welcomed by many minority communities. As a female judge with an Hispanic background and 16 years of experience on the federal bench, she was said by Esquire to be a one-of-a-kind nominee. Sotomayor, according to the magazine, "would slay two of the court's lack-of-diversity birds with one swift stone." This becomes relevant to Obama's decision-making process since a number of organizations in the Hispanic community are demanding a Hispanic Supreme Court justice partly because during the 2008 election, Barack Obama's victory was assisted by strong support from the Hispanic community.
Esquire also wrote, "These are criteria that matter these days. Even Laura Bush was disappointed that her husband didn't name a woman to replace Sandra Day O'Connor," says Mark Tushnet, the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law at Harvard Law. Professor Tushnet also stated: "Because Sotomayor has a reputation for staying behind the scenes and sits on a federal bench known for its centrism, it's likely that she would be able to garner a two-thirds majority in the Senate, even if the Democrats only control an estimated 55 or so seats. Plus there's an insurance measure if the nomination gets too politicized publicly."
Tushnet also stated in his interview describing the possible near unanimous consent for Sotamayor: "If you're a Democratic strategist, you can gin up ads that say, 'She was good enough for George H. W. Bush. Why isn't she good enough for (Senate Minority Leader) Mitch McConnell?
Kathleen Sullivan, 53, former dean, Stanford Law School. Leading Constitutional law scholar now in private practice. Sullivan is a Harvard Law School graduate who taught constitutional law there before she moved to Stanford in 1993. She became the first female dean of a school at Stanford University when she was appointed dean of the law school in 1999.
Sullivan stepped down at Stanford in 2004, remaining as a professor while joining the law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges. Sullivan has an extensive background as an advocate for civil rights and civil liberties. She argued four cases before the Supreme Court, including a 1991 tax dispute that pitted her against now-Chief Justice John Roberts, who was then a government lawyer. Roberts won that case on a 9-0 vote. She is, reportedly, a lesbian.
Diane Wood, 58, judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit. An appointee of President Bill Clinton, Wood has been a judge on the Chicago-based appellate court since 1995. She served as a clerk for former Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun and was on the faculty of the University of Chicago Law School for 14 years before her appointment. Wood continues to teach at the law school, along with fellow 7th Circuit judges Frank Easterbrook and Richard Posner. Immediately prior to joining the Seventh Circuit Court, Judge Wood was a Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Antitrust Division of the United States Department of Justice from September 1993 through July 1995. In this role, she was responsible for appellate matters and international enforcement of trade laws affecting the United States.
Elena Kagan, 48, Solicitor General of the U.S. She is the first woman to hold that office, having been nominated by then President-elect Barack Obama on January 5, 2009, and confirmed by the U.S. Senate on March 19, 2009. Kagan was formerly dean of Harvard Law School and Charles Hamilton Houston Professor of Law at Harvard University. She served as Associate White House Counsel under President Bill Clinton. Kagan, who prior to her appointment never argued a Supreme Court case, has a longstanding connection to Obama. The two worked on the University of Chicago Law School faculty at the same time during the 1990s.
Jennifer Granholm , 49, is currently the Governor of Michigan and formerly a member of the economic advisory transition team for President Obama. A former beauty queen who, like Gov. Arnold Sschwarzenegger, once appeared as a contestant on The Dating Game, she was elected governor in 2002 and re-elected in 2006. Granholm graduated from UC-Berkeley in 1984 Phi Beta Kappa with two BA degrees, one in political science, the other in French. Granholm then earned a Juris Doctor degree at Harvard Law School, also with honors. She began her career in public service as a judicial clerk for Michigan's 6th Circuit Court of Appeals. She became a federal prosecutor in Detroit in 1990, and in 1994, she was appointed Wayne County Corporation Counsel. Granholm was elected Michigan's first female attorney general in 1998. Granholm was born in Vancouver, British Columbia and became a U.S. citizen in 1980.
Leah Ward Sears, 53, is the Chief Justice of the Georgia Supreme Court. She has served on the court since 1992 when she was first appointed by then-governor Zell Miller, a Democrat. Sears became the court's chief justice in June 2005 and the first African American Chief Justice in the U.S. She has announced her plan to retire from the court in June 2009. She was the first African-American woman to serve as Superior Court Judge in Georgia. When appointed, she became 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. Sears is a 1976 graduate of Cornell University (B.S. Degree); a 1980 graduate of Emory University School of Law (J.D. Degree); and a 1995 graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law (LL.M Degree). She also has engaged in extensive studies at the National Judicial College. Prior to becoming a judge, she was an attorney with the law firm of Alston & Bird. In 1993, Justice Sears received the honorary Doctor of Law degree from Morehouse College.