Jack & Jill Politics

With the retirement of Justice John Paul Stevens, President Obama has another chance to balance the highest court in the land, hopefully by the fall.

Its also been debated that President Obama should nominate someone with a strong liberal opinion. This would counter-balance the present conservative tone of the court and mainly try to push through someone who will undoubtedly be vehemently opposed by Republicans. The thought is that since they are going to hate anyways, might as well pick the person you want over the person who is the ‘safest’.

While I’m personally of the opinion that pragmatism and social perspective are better tools to fight knuckle-headed Scalia-esque rants than activist rhetoric, we at JnJ Politics want to give some hearty cliff notes to our readers of names that are buzzing.

Ann Claire Williams

• Graduate of Wayne State, Univ. of Michigan, and Notre Dame Law School
• The first African-American to serve on the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal
• Founder of the Just the Beginning Foundation, a multiracial not-for-profit organization of judges, lawyers, and citizens to preserve the rich stories of judges and lawyers of color
• First named to the bench in 1985 by Republican President Ronald Reagan
• Led delegations to Ghana to train members of the Ghanaian judiciary in areas including judicial ethics, case management, and alternative dispute resolution
• Co-founded Minority Legal Education Resources, Inc, an organization dedicated to the mission of increasing the number of practicing minority attorneys

Image from the Chicago Tribune.
More information about Judge Williams can be found at JTBF.