And one I added
- Diane Pamela Wood
Gender –female. Marital Status –married to Robert L Sufit (neurology professor). Religion –unknown and probably not very religious. Home –the Chicago area. Occupation and employment history – she is a judge on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, formerly on the faculty of University of Chicago Law School, assistant law professor at Georgetown University, private practice in DC, and attorney-advisor for the office of legal adviser of the U.S. Dept. of State.
Specialties; sexual harassment prevention, use of RICO to prevent abortion protestors from blockading clinics, environmental concerns, and handicap support issues.
Benefits of selection: Justice Wood is highly experienced, extremely intelligent, and a very eloquent writer who is clearly pro-choice, and fits Obama’s desire for a Justice who fights for those less fortunate. Wood will probably have no problem getting confirmed.
Negatives: At soon to be 59 Justice Wood is one of the older potential selections on Obama’s list, but she gives a youthful appearance. She might be seen as wanting to extend the powers of federal investigators. Almost no video of her speeches can be found anywhere.
- Pamela Karlan
Gender –female. Marital Status –in a long term gay partnership with Viola Canales (a litigator and author of published books). Religion –unknown and probably not very religious. Home –Northern California. Occupation and employment –legal scholar currently public interest law professor at Stanford Law School, and co-founded the Stanford Law School Supreme Court Litigation Clinic, through which students litigate live cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. She was the professor of law at the University of Virginia School of Law, and was assistant counsel at the NAACP.
Specialties; Civil rights, particularly on gay and transgender issues, voting rights, and combating government corruption.
Benefits of selection: She is firmly pro-choice (more so than any other candidate), fits Obama’s desire for a Justice who fights for those less fortunate, has a very sharp wit, is extremely intelligent, and writes probably better than anyone. Karlan would bring a gay voice to the Supreme Court, and through her life partner she would also bring a Latina voice to the court.
Negatives: Her sexual orientation would be a hard sell to the conservatives in congress, and she has also already publicly called out Justice Kennedy, Alito, and Roberts, who are three jurists on the Supreme Court that Karlan would have to convince to see things from her perspective to get anything done.
- Kim McLane Wardlaw
Gender- Female. Marital Status –married to Bill Wardlaw (a lawyer possibly retired?). Religion –lists her mother as Catholic and her father as Presbyterian but her religion is unknown. Home –Northern California (SF area). Occupation and past employment history - federal judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, private practice at the firm O’Melveny & Myers, former legal extern for Judge Joseph Tyree Sneed III, and clerked for Judge William P. Gray.
Specialties; Protection of intellectual property and media defense, privacy rights of minors, online privacy, women’s rights, labor benefits issues, environmental issues.
Benefits of her selection: She is extremely intelligent (finished 5th in her graduating class of 300), very knowable in new tech matters, solidly pro-choice, and would have an extremely easy time getting confirmed. Would bring a Hispanic voice to the Supreme Court.
Negatives: Critics may say that with her blonde hair and Irish-Scot heritage that she is not really Hispanic, but her mother was an immigrant from Mexico.
- Elena Kagan
Gender –female. Marital Status -????(I’m guessing not married). Religion –Jewish but probably not devoutly practicing the religion. Home –NYC, Occupation and past employment history –Current solicitor general of the United States, former dean of Harvard Law School (appointed by the noted sexist Lawrence Summers), clerked separately for Abner Mikva and Thurgood Marshall, and was assistant professor, and a tenured professor, of law at University of Chicago Law School (a very impeccable resume).
Specialties: Administrative law, first amendment issues, and overcoming ideological disputes (getting conservatives to agree with her)
Benefits of Selection: An amazing scholar and probably the preferred choice of the left establishment (if it exists), ardent opponent of "don’t ask don’t tell", tremendously great orator (never makes gaffs), and extremely persuasive.
Negatives: Is comparatively young at age 49, but (to put this delicately) isn’t exactly a model of physical health (still, I am sure the bench could get 30 or 40 years of hard work out of her). She would be the 3rd Jewish Supreme Court Justice in a row appointed by a Democratic President. The conservatives really hate her, but she survived recent confirmation by earning 61 votes. She agreed that the Geneva Convention does grant the U.S. the power to hold enemy combatants indefinitely.
- Sonia Sotomayor
Gender –female. Marital Status –divorced after 7 years of marriage in the 80s and has remained single ever since. Religion –probably Catholic but probably not devoutly Catholic (considering she is a divorcée). Home –NYC. Occupation and employment history – Sotomayor is a federal judge on the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. She is one of the founding members of the New York City Campaign Finance Board, where she served for two years. She has also been a member of the Board of Directors of the State of New York Mortgage Agency (SONYMA), the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, and the foundation then known as the Maternity Center Association (now called Childbirth Connection). She was an Adjunct Professor at New York University School of Law and lectures at Columbia Law School. She has honorary degrees from a whole mess of universities, probably in large part because she is considered a political centrist.
Specialties: Ending high profile labor disputes but favoring labor, the media’s free speech rights, ducking hard issues on an affirmative actions case (based due to a decision she wrote on only one page).
Benefit of selection: Tremendously popular political centrist, and would have a very easy time getting confirmed. She would give the Supreme Court a true 100% Hispanic voice,
Negatives: Certainly won’t be a liberal on a court that is skewed way to the right, gave a very questionable decision on a case involving student free speech, questionable as to whether she is pro-choice, appeared ditz in a video, and has been criticized for how much scrutiny she puts in petty details such grammar and punctuation. She might have health issues, as she was diagnosed a diabetic at the age of 8.
- Harold Koh
Gender –male. Marital Status –married to Mary-Christy Fisher (an attorney employed by the New Haven Legal Assistance Association). Religion –unknown, but is firmly in favor of separation of Church and State, and is railed against by conservatives who believe he is anti-religion. Home –Boston. Occupation and employment history – Dean of Yale Law School, and is nominated by President Obama for the position of Legal Adviser of the Department of State. Was Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor in the Clinton Administration.
Specialties: Transnationalism, international law, human rights, civil rights, trade laws, and everything under the sun (is probably the most brilliant legal mind on the planet).
Benefits of selection: He is a powerful voice, champion of just about every liberal cause, and probably wouldn’t have too much trouble getting approved. He would be the first Asian on the Supreme Court
Negatives: He’s a man.
- Lisa Madagan
Gender –female. Marital Status –married to Pat Byrnes (cartoonist, created the strip Mickeyhouse, and wrote "What Would Satan Do?" and "Cartoons About Right, Wrong, and Very, Very Wrong"). Religion –unknown, probably not very religious (was given campaign donation from a "Black Metal" music group member, but she later donated to money to an anti-hate charity). Home –Chicago. Occupation and employment history – She is the Attorney General for Illinois, and former state senator. She worked as a community organizer to develop after-school programs to keep kids of f of the streets, and taught to Africans in South Africa during apartheid. She worked as a litigator for the Chicago law firm of Sachnoff & Weaver.
Specialties: Search and seizure laws, has serious law-and-order bona fides, the death penalty.
Benefits of selection. She is very young, and could be a strong liberal and feminine voice on the SCOTUS for 50 years or more. She is highly qualified for the job despite what people may think.
Negative: She is a close friend of Obama, but she might not ever be considered for the job, as she is probably more interested in becoming governor or Senator from Illinois (and from there President of the United States). She will probably be seen as the potential "hanging judge".
- My Wife
Gender –female. Marital Status –married to me (a serviceman, and aspiring science fiction writer). Religion –devout Buddhist (successfully converted many). Home –Hawaii. Occupation –if I list it she will hurt me.
Specialty: best homemaker in the world, best baker in the world, Buddhism, transnationalism, immigration, immigrant rights, pop culture, and underground culture.
Benefits of selection. At 37, I mean 35, She is young, she loves to give her opinion and advice (even to lawyers), is staunchly pro-choice, pro-labor, pro-freedom of speech, pro-sex, pro-sex ed, pro-contraceptive, pro-porn, pro immigrant rights, considers herself a feminist (though in her native Japan that only means that she would be against her husband taking a mistress), pro-gun, pro-environment, pro-separation of church and state, is anti-Lolita or child porn, anti-politicians, and anti-corporations, is always hell of a lot of fun to have around, and never gets lost no matter where in the world she is driving.
Negative: Isn’t in any shape or form being considered, has no law experience, has no law degree, has never written a legal paper or even entered a court room, and isn’t an American Citizen.
Actually I think all of those are benefits.
Reason for appointment: because we shouldn’t have fucking lawyers deciding what rights we should have, or tell us what is right and wrong