Could Chicago's Judge Wood fill Ginsburg's seat if she resigns from Supreme Court?
She seems to be at the top of many handicappers' lists -- just as she was 14 years ago when President Bill Clinton had a chance to fill an opening on the federal appellate court in Chicago.
Judge Diane Pamela Wood, 58, has spent the last 14 years going toe-to-toe with the legendary conservative lions of Chicago's 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, Richard Posner and Frank Easterbrook, and her fans say she could ably fill the shoes of Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the moderate-liberal wing of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Wood often finds herself the lonely dissenter on three-judge panels, arguing that atheists should be able to challenge the mostly-Christian prayers Indiana legislators use to open their sessions, that a gay Wisconsin teacher should be able to sue for alleged discrimination, that a Jewish condo dweller should be able to sue for discrimination when the building makes her take down her mezuzah, or that Indiana voters should not have to show ID to vote.
Conservatives dominate here in the 7th Circuit, which includes Illinois, Wisconsin and Indiana. Wood, sometimes in the majority, other times in dissent, has taken the pro-choice side in three high-profile cases that could become lightning rods for conservatives if she is President Obama's first nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court.
Wood's name is even more prominent because of Thursday's news that Ginsburg, 75, is being treated for pancreatic cancer, raising the possibility that the court's only woman could be the first one to resign, as opposed to Justice David Souter, 69, or John Paul Stevens, 88, who also could leave during Obama's presidency. Ginsberg's office said the justice hopes to return to work in the next few weeks.
Obama and Wood were senior lecturers at the University of Chicago law school together, like Posner and Easterbrook. They travel in the same circles.
Former Clinton White House Counsel Abner Mikva, who recruited her for her current seat, is a trusted adviser to Obama, recommending the names of potential judges. Other Obama friends from the U of C's law school, such as Cass Sunstein, are considered favorites for the high court, but if the so-called "female seat" is the first to open up, Wood's chances increase.
"She's a logical choice," said attorney Tom Geoghegan, who has appeared before Wood. "If I were Barack Obama and I were looking for someone who's going to fit in his mold of a not terribly ideological, very intelligent judge who's not going to get him in trouble politically because she's very smart and careful, she'd be somebody I think he would go with."
Gary Feinerman, who has also argued cases before Wood, agreed: "Judge Wood is always well-prepared for argument. She asks incisive questions of both sides and writes, clear, incisive opinions."
A New Jersey native, Wood moved to Texas with her family at age 16 and went to the University of Texas for both college and -- after she opted out of a Yale doctorate in comparative literature -- law school. She clerked for Justice Harry Blackmun, who swore her in after Clinton named her to the 7th Circuit. She also worked for the Washington law firm of Covington & Burling. She is married to a neurologist and has three adult children and three stepchildren.
Wood clerked for Blackmun after he authored the 1973 Roe v. Wade case mandating that abortion be legal. She has cited that case in three opinions taking the pro-abortion-rights side of cases that came before the 7th Circuit:
• She wrote in dissent against bans on "partial-birth abortion" in Illinois and Wisconsin. The Supreme Court OK'd such bans in 2007.
• She ruled that Planned Parenthood could use the "RICO" anti-mob law to sue anti-abortion protesters -- a ruling ultimately reversed by the U.S. Supreme Court.
• She wrote in dissent that an Indiana law requiring in-person counseling before a woman could seek an abortion should be blocked.
But in a fourth case, reversing an order that would have deported a Chinese woman who feared she might be subjected to forced abortion in her homeland under that country's one-child policy, Wood sided with the woman and against the immigration judge, saying the woman did have a well-grounded fear of forced abortion in her homeland.
Wood authored the opinion upholding the conviction of former Gov. George Ryan, despite a series of bizarre goings-on with the jury in that case.
Slapping down an argument from Posner that the 8-month length of Ryan's trial called out for reversal, Wood chastised Posner, saying none of Ryan's lawyers raised that argument -- just Posner.
Early in her time on the appellate court, Wood attracted the attention of conservative columnist Ann Coulter, who ridiculed a Wood opinion that failure to provide a prisoner with a smoke-free environment constituted "cruel and unusual punishment."
Fellow Judge Ilana Rovner praised Wood and another member of the court, Ann C. Williams, also mentioned as a Supreme Court prospect, saying, "We have two outstanding prospects on our court. Diane is very smart, very engaging. She's always prepared."