[Jonathan Adler, May 20, 2009 at 1:45pm] Trackbacks
Jeff Rosen Hearts Diane Wood:

Jeff Rosen profiles Supreme Court short-lister Judge Diane Wood, and it's very favorable. (It also relies more on named sources than his profile of Judge Sotomayor.) His bottom line: "Her combination of moderate liberalism and a judicious temperament would make her a worthy successor to David Souter."

For what it's worth, I've long thought Judge Wood is the obvious choice. As I told Marcia Coyle:

She has a wide range of experience, including substantial government service; she has the intellectual heft to go toe-to-toe with the Court's conservatives; she is reliably liberal on the issues the administration and its base are likely to be most focused on (including abortion); she has experience that would seem to satisfy the president's concern for empathy, including being a working mother while on the faculty at the University of Chicago when they did not have maternity leave.
On a related note, Judge Wood is in Washington today.

Nunzio:
Judge Wood would make a good Justice, and certainly a better Justice than Souter.
5.20.2009 2:28pm
Houston Lawyer:
Oooooh, he really sold me with the working mother without maternity leave part. So she had her baby at the office? Surely she should have been paid for not working for six months after the birth and had that period count towards tenure. Paid maternity leave is a benefit, not a right.
5.20.2009 2:51pm
Anon321:
Considering that the profile seems intended to be strongly favorable, this passage stuck out as (unintentionally?) damaging:


But the area in which she would bring the greatest degree of intellectual diversity is in her specialty: antitrust law. There are, on the current Court, no economic populists in the mode of William O. Douglas, who boasted that he wanted "to bend the law against the corporations and in favor of the environment." The current Democratic justices, led by former antitrust scholar Stephen Breyer, are relatively moderate on antitrust enforcement. (During its first two terms, the Roberts Court heard seven antitrust cases and decided all of them in favor of the corporate defendant.) Wood's scholarly record suggests she might be more vigorous.


Jeff, if you're trying to get people excited about Judge Wood, don't compare her to Justice Douglas and his stated goal of "bend[ing] the law."

Also, this quote from Richard Epstein seems to be missing an adjective: "Indeed I have never heard anyone ever utter a word of her performance since she has been on the bench."
5.20.2009 3:09pm
Joseph Slater (mail):
Epstein continued, "Indeed, she is the most of any I have ever had the to meet."
5.20.2009 3:27pm
UofC 05 (mail):
Yeah, the Epstein quote seems to be missing a negative. I never had her, but the closest to a negative thing I heard about her was there were two professors who taught Antitrust, her and Randy Picker, and Wood's class was much more doctrinal and legal whereas Picker's class (which I took) was significantly more economically-oriented. This partially reflects their different backgrounds (Picker did grad work in econ), and Wood's class would probably be more useful for a future Antitrust practitioner. If, like me, you're a fan of what the Supreme Court has done in its movement towards more economically-based antitrust analysis, Wood's appointment is not an unalloyed good.

As far as nits to pick go, I'd be glad to concede Wood's exact antitrust philosophy is not a particularly important one. She wouldn't be my first choice if I were picking Souter's replacement, but, well, I'm not a Democrat and the President and Senate both are.
5.20.2009 3:45pm
David M. Nieporent (www):
She's obviously the best choice on the short list -- in my opinion -- but not being hispanic seems likely to be a significant handicap.
5.20.2009 5:44pm
ruuffles (mail) (www):

Oooooh, he really sold me with the working mother without maternity leave part. So she had her baby at the office? Surely she should have been paid for not working for six months after the birth and had that period count towards tenure. Paid maternity leave is a benefit, not a right.

Sarcasm aside, you'd prefer her over another shortlister.

Monday's 7-2 ruling, which resolved a circuit split, held that telecommunications giant AT&T Corp. could not be held liable for refusing to grant pension benefits to female employees for maternity leave taken before a federal law on the matter was passed in 1978. AT&T Corp. v. Hulteen, DJDAR 7019.

That decision reversed a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals opinion written by Pasadena-based Judge Kim McLane Wardlaw, who has been promoted by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and others as a possible replacement for Souter. Although reports suggest Wardlaw has not made Obama's shortlist, she would be the country's first Hispanic justice if nominated and confirmed.

At the same time, the Supreme Court's decision embraced the conclusion of the 7th Circuit in a 2000 case dealing with the same issues written by Judge Diane Wood, a frequently mentioned frontrunner to replace Souter.
5.20.2009 7:59pm
ruuffles (mail) (www):
Sorry, here link

link
5.20.2009 7:59pm
RPT (mail):
"Although reports suggest Wardlaw has not made Obama's shortlist, she would be the country's first Hispanic justice if nominated and confirmed."

Although she did have the highest GPA, she was not Hispanic in law school, before marrying Bill Wardlaw at O'Melveny.
5.20.2009 8:49pm
BRM:
I believe the reason Judge Wardlaw is Hispanic is because he mother in Mexican-American. Marriage has nothing to do with it.
5.20.2009 10:27pm
BRM:
her mother, that is.
5.20.2009 10:29pm
anon1240128y:
So, I know everyone is giving Souter a bad rap, but Acuff Rose is elegant and beautiful and has made my work life substantially more interesting. I would like for one Justice on the court who is able to produce a copyright opinion of that quality. That's all I ask. Wood can write her ass off on copyright issues. Yup, she'll definitely do.
5.21.2009 2:00am
A. Non E. Mouse (mail):
If Wood doesn't get the gig, maybe MSNBC can hire her as a legal commentator, and give her a morning show called "Morning Wood." LOL
5.23.2009 5:57pm

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