Potential Obama Supreme Court Nominee Bios

Obama to Fill Stephens Vacated Supreme Court Seat

President Barack Obama is getting ready to appoint his second supreme court justice in as many years, as Justice John Paul Stevens announced his retirement this week. As a result, the talking heads are already trying to look into their crystal ball to see who the President might have in mind for the next member of the highest court in the land.

While the names below are mere speculation, there is only one thing certain about Obama’s decision. It will not be an appointment without controversy, as much of Obama’s political capital and goodwill was spent on the recent healthcare bill.

So, since speculating about these type of appointments makes for good conversation, here is the short list of the most likely candidates that could become the next Supreme Court justice of the United States of America.

The following is a bio of potential Supreme Court nominee Federal appellate Judge Diane Wood:

• Diane P. Wood was appointed to the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit by President William J. Clinton on June 30, 1995.
• Judge Wood was born in Plainfield, New Jersey, on July 4,1950.
• She lived in Westfield, New Jersey, until the age of 16, when she moved to Houston, Texas.
• Diane P. Wood received her BA in 1971 and her JD in 1975 from the University of Texas at Austin.
• After graduation, she clerked for Judge Irving L. Goldberg of the Fifth Circuit and for Justice Harry A. Blackmun of the U.S. Supreme Court.
• She worked briefly for the U.S. State Department on international investment, antitrust, and transfer of technology issues
• In 1980-81, she was an assistant professor at the Georgetown University Law Center. In 1981, she joined the faculty of the law school.
• She spent 1985-86 on leave as a visiting professor at Cornell Law School, and she was on leave during the fall quarter 1986, while she worked on the project to revise the Department of Justice Antitrust Guide for International Operations. She served as associate dean from 1989 through 1992
• From 1993 until 1995, she was deputy assistant general in the antitrust division of the U.S. Department of Justice with responsibility for the division’s international, appellate, and legal policy matters.
• Judge Wood’s research interests include antitrust (both international and general), federal civil procedure, and international trade and business. She has taught in all three fields.
• Judge Wood has also worked on law reform projects in the United States, particularly through the American Bar Association and the Brookings Institution Project on Civil Justice Reform.
• Judge Wood sits on the Council of the American Law Institute and is a member of the Board of Editors of the American Journal of International Law

SOURCE: American Bar Association

The following is a bio of potential Supreme Court nominee Federal Appellate Judge Merrick Garland:

• Judge Merrick Garland was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals in April 1997.
• He graduated from Harvard College (summa cum laude) in 1974 and Harvard Law School (magna cum laude) in 1977.
• Judge Garland served as law clerk to Judge Henry J. Friendly of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and to U.S. Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan, Jr.
• From 1979 to 1981, Garland was special assistant to the attorney general of the United States. He then joined the law firm of Arnold Porter, where he was a partner from 1985 to 1989 and from 1992 to 1993.
• Judge Garland served as an assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia from 1989 to 1992, and as deputy assistant attorney general in the criminal division of the U.S. Department of Justice from 1993 to 1994.
• Judge Garland served as principal associate deputy attorney general from 1994 until his appointment as U.S. Circuit Judge.
• He has taught antitrust law at Harvard Law School and has served as co-chair of the administrative law section of the District of Columbia Bar.

SOURCE: U.S. Court of Appeals

The following is a bio of potential Supreme Court nominee, Solicitor General Elena Kagan:

• Elena Kagan was confirmed as the 45th solicitor general of the United States in March 2009. Prior to her confirmation, Elena Kagan was the Charles Hamilton Houston professor of law and the 11th dean of Harvard Law School.
• Kagan came to Harvard Law School as a visiting professor in 1999 and became professor of law in 2001.
• While on the Harvard faculty, Kagan taught administrative law, constitutional law, civil procedure, and seminars on issues involving the separation of powers.
• Kagan was appointed dean of Harvard Law School in 2003.
• From 1995 to 1999, Kagan served in the White House, first as associate counsel to the president (1995-96)
• She served as deputy assistant to the president for domestic policy and deputy director of the Domestic Policy Council from 1997-99
• Kagan launched her academic career at the University of Chicago Law School, where she became an assistant professor in 1991 and a tenured professor of law in 1995.
• In 1993, Kagan received the graduating students’ award for teaching excellence.
• Kagan clerked for Judge Abner Mikva of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit from 1986 to 1987 and she clerked for Justice Thurgood Marshall of the United States Supreme Court.
• She worked as an associate in the Washington, D.C. law firm of Williams & Connolly from 1989 to 1991.
• Kagan received her bachelor’s degree, summa cum laude, from Princeton in 1981.
• She attended Worcester College, Oxford, as Princeton’s Daniel M. Sachs Graduating Fellow, and received an M. Phil. in 1983.
• She then attended Harvard Law School, where she was supervising editor of the Harvard Law Review, and graduated magna cum laude in 1986.

SOURCE: U.S. Justice Department

Tags: Diane Wood, Elena Kagan, Merrick Garland, President Obama, Supreme Court

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 11th, 2010 at 4:22 am and is filed under Supreme Court. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.