May I present to you all, the next Supreme Court Justice of the United States

[Number23]

Leah Ward Sears

The daughter of U.S. Army Colonel Thomas E. Sears and Onnye Jean Sears, Justice Sears was born in Heidelberg, Germany, but the family eventually settled in Savannah, Georgia, where Leah attended and graduated from high school.

Chief Justice Sears received her B.S. from Cornell University in 1976, her J.D. from Emory University School of Law in 1980 and an LL.M from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1995. At Cornell, she was a member of the Quill and Dagger society. Chief Justice Sears is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated. :loveya: :loveya: (From her Wiki page)

And the best part -- SHE IS PLANNING TO RETIRE FROM THE GEORGIA SUPREME COURT THIS YEAR!!

"Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears, who became the nation’s first African-American woman to preside over a state Supreme Court, says she will leave the court at the end of June 2009.

“I’m interested in exploring another chapter in my life,” Sears, 53, said in a recent interview. “I want to see whatever else is out there.”

Sears will leave the court when her term as chief justice ends on June 30, 2009. Because her term as a justice ends Dec. 31, 2010, her resignation will allow Gov. Sonny Perdue to name her successor and reshape the state’s highest court." From http://www.ajc.com/services/content/metro/stories/2008/10/29/justice_sears_resignation.html

Souter is retiring in June 2009. Ward Sears is retiring in June 2009. Coincidence? Oh, I think not! :) That leaves old girl WIDE open for a Supreme Court appointment. She is only 53 years old. Oh, be still my heart!

On one hand, I absolutely shudder to think who Sonny will put in the GA Supreme Court in her place. On the other, having a sister on the Supreme Court would be the sweetest icing on the cake that is the Obama administration. And having a sister representing my hometown of Atlanta would be the sweetest sprinkles on the sweetest icing.

[Number23]

1. Full Disclosure:

My track record on this type of thing isn't that great. I was hoping, sweating and praying that Susan Rice would become the next Sec of State and we all know how that turned out. :) http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x4470229

Peach Pundit describes Ward Sears as a "leftist." She describes herself as a "moderate with a progressive streak." But uh oh! It appears that she is friends with Clarence Thomas. That is a HUGE red flag for so many reasons it's pitiful.

[firedupdem]

2. Wow..what a lady! I like her! She sounds great except for the

Clarence Thomas part. :)

[Number23]

3. Yeah, we definitely need to work on her choice of "friends."

:)

[Brewman_Jax]

4. An excellent choice

except for her choice of friends (along those lines, my brother has a long-time good friend that's a religiously-insane neocon closet racist that would help "hide the body" if needed :crazy: ) and she's available for the appointment. :thumbsup:

[Number23]

5. I think so too, Brew

Sometimes the fact that people can be friends with those type of people shows their obvious commitment to respecting everyone. Let's be real, it's very difficult to take someone's claims of being fair and believing in all of humanity seriously if all of their friends are just like them.

At least, that's what I'm telling myself in Judge Sears' case. :)

[Number23]

6. Sears places 3rd in online poll re: nominees

Georgia Supreme court chief justice Leah Ward Sears is ranked 3rd in an online poll on "who should replace Justice David Souter?"

The poll is part of The New York Times on-line edition. It shows Sears just behind Elena Kegan and Sonia Sotomayor.

http://gpbnews.blogspot.com/2009/05/georgia-justice-popular-as-possible.html

[HamdenRice]

7. She wrote a brilliant dissenting opinion on adoption once

She is a great judge with a fine legal mind. It would also be refreshing to have a SC justice who came from a state supreme court, rather than from the federal bench or academia.

Only thing I don't like about her is something I just discovered since her name has been floated: Her husband is one of the biggest assholes of all time, Haskell Ward. I had no idea she was married to that legendary creep.

[Number23]

8. Okay I Googled and all I got was this...

"Haskell Ward, former Deputy Mayor of New York City under Mayor Ed Koch"

Care to provide more info, Mr. NYC?? :)

[HamdenRice]

9. He was Koch's go to guy for the Black community

Koch was kind of a proto-Giuliani. He had started out a liberal, but by the time he ran for mayor was a neo-conservative Democrat. (He eventually registered as a Republican and in NY's bizarre political system ran on both tickets.)

Koch's political strategy was basically to run against the Black community -- something that Giuliani did much more blatantly. Koch did "popular" things like closing hospitals and various services in Black neighborhoods to great fanfare and teevee coverage.

Ward was the public face of this process and political strategy. He was widely hated in the New York Black community at the time.

I also have a personal story about Ward that says a lot about him. Shortly after college, I went to Africa for the first time on a volunteer project. When I came back, I wasn't sure what to do with my life -- whether to go to grad school or law school, or how to get involved in the development sector in Africa. I was working in a community based organization in the South Bronx and a very nice co-worker suggested I talk to her husband, a black state court judge, about careers. He invited me to his chambers and was really nice and after our talk, the judge suggested I talk to other black professionals. He said black professionals were eager to talk to young people like me, and I did what he suggested and found it to be very true and very useful.

Ward had left public service and was some sort of Africa development consultant at that time. He had been in the same program in Africa I had been in, and the alumni of that program were generally friendly and supportive of each other. I sent him a letter asking to talk about the field.

Now I expected a certain number of people to be too busy or not interested, but Ward's brush off said a lot about him. When I called to follow up, his secretary told him I was on the line and then came back and said something to the effect that Mr. Ward says that he gets paid for giving advice, and he will only talk to you about careers in Africa if you pay him his standard fee of $100 an hour.

He was the only such black professional to demand payment for talking to a young broke student.

That's no reflection on Justice Sears who I admire greatly.

[Number23]

10. Damn. Cold-hearted SOB, ain't he??

He'll be the first one trying to hit you up for a campaign donation the next time he runs for office. I absolutely detest people like this.

[firedupdem]

11. Oh my!

What a piece of work!

[Fire1]

12. She would be an excellent choice and AKA to boot! Hell yeah.

[Number23]

13. ...

:loveya: :fistbump: :loveya:

[Number23]

14. Well, damn...

"Georgia Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears announced Wednesday she will join a think tank working on strengthening marriage and the Atlanta office of a Chicago law firm when she steps down from the bench at the end of June."

"...Chief Justice Sears, who has been divorced and later remarried, said in an interview with Morris News Service that failed relationships and children born out of wedlock account for much of the problems that wind up in court. She said family-law cases have grown from 10 percent of Georgia court dockets when Gov. Zell Miller appointed her to the Supreme Court in 1992 to 60 percent of all cases today."

http://chronicle.augusta.com/stories/2009/05/14/met_523948.shtml

I applaud her commitment to strengthening families but I can't say I'm not DAMN disappointed she appears to be out of the running for the Supreme Court. This is very disappointing.

[Number23]

15. Okay, forget my last post

Sears is once again considered a VERY viable candidate. In fact, the NY Times considers her one of the "top five contenders by legal and political scholars! :woohoo:

Background on her from the NY Times - http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/s/leah_ward_sears/index.html

[Number23]

16. Oh well. I'm rooting for her the next opening!!

:headbang: