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Wood, Kagan Are on High Court Short List, Again
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By Sharon Johnson
WeNews correspondent
Sunday, April 25, 2010

Two women are once again making the radar in Supreme Court nomination
season. Here's a look at Judge Diane P. Wood and Solicitor General
Elena Kagan and their records--long and short--on the hot-button issue
of abortion rights.

(WOMENSNEWS)--Several hours after Supreme Court Justice John Paul
Stevens announced on April 9 his plan to retire this summer, Americans
United for Life, an anti-choice advocacy group, targeted one possible
candidate, Judge Diane P. Wood of the federal 7th Circuit Court of
Appeals in Chicago, as someone who "would return the abortion
wars to the Supreme Court" because of her pro-choice decisions.

Calling President Obama "unquestionably the most pro-abortion
president in history," the Chicago-based nonprofit public
interest law and policy organization later also objected to Solicitor
General Elena Kagan, among other names circulating in speculative
press reports.

Both women were also mentioned in connection with the Supreme Court
vacancy a year ago. Here are their brief biographies and views on
abortion.

Diane P. Wood

Judge Diane P. Wood has served on the federal 7th Circuit Court of
Appeals in Chicago for the past 15 years and has written over 400
opinions during her tenure there. She is a former clerk to Justice
Harry A. Blackmun, who authored the 1973 Roe decision mandating that
abortion be legal.

When President Bill Clinton nominated Wood, she was deputy assistant
general in the anti-trust division of the U.S. Department of Justice.
She faced no questions about abortion during her confirmation hearings
before the Judiciary Committee and was unanimously confirmed by the
Senate.

So far, no reproductive rights organization has spoken in favor of
nominating any candidate reported to be on Obama's list. But these
groups can be assumed to look favorably on Wood for taking pro-choice
positions in several cases in the 7th circuit.

On legislation approved for Illinois and Wisconsin, she wrote a
dissent against "partial birth" abortions, a term with no
clinical meaning that is presumed to serve to widen--by its
vagueness--the applicable time limitations of laws that already outlaw
late-term abortions. The Supreme Court later approved the bans and
accepted the politicized terminology.

Her most controversial ruling said that abortion providers could be
awarded damages from anti-choice protestors under the "RICO"
anti-racketeering statues, a decision that was reversed by the Supreme
Court.

Like Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who issued a similar ruling as a
federal judge in New York, Wood ruled in favor of a female immigrant
who opposed being sent back to China because of China's policies on
forced abortion and birth control.

Wood's name began circulating as a candidate for the "woman's
seat" on the Supreme Court in early 2009 when the press reported
that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg might resign because she was being
treated for pancreatic cancer. Obama interviewed Wood for David
Souter's position when the pro-choice Republican retired last summer,
but ultimately tapped Sotomayor, the first Hispanic judge.

Like Stevens, Wood, 59, would bring geographic and educational
diversity to the court. A native of Chicago, Stevens received his
undergraduate degree at the University of Chicago and his law degree
at Northwestern University in Chicago.

Wood would replace Stevens as the only non-Ivy Leaguer on the court.
A New Jersey native, Wood moved to Texas with her family at age 16 and
received her bachelor's and law degrees at the University of Texas.
Like Obama, Wood has taught at the University of Chicago Law School.
For many years, Wood was the only woman on the faculty. In addition to
teaching anti-trust, federal civil procedures and international trade
and business, Wood served as associate dean for three years.

Stevens is currently the only Protestant on the court, which
otherwise is composed of six Catholics and two Jews. Wood has not
stated her religious preference. Stevens' retirement raises the
prospect that--for the first time in U.S. history--the court will not
have a Protestant judge, although Protestants are the largest
denomination and have supported pro-choice positions in numerous
cases.

Wood is married to a neurologist at Northwestern University Medical
School and has three adult children and three stepchildren.



Elena Kagan

Elena Kagan, who was named solicitor general in March 2009, is the
first woman in the job, sometimes known as the 10th Supreme Court
justice.

The solicitor general defends laws passed by Congress, regulations
enacted by agencies and actions by the president that come before the
court.

A scholar of administrative law, Kagan was the first woman to be
appointed dean of the Harvard Law School in 2003. During her six-year
tenure, she modernized the curriculum, promoted public service law and
expanded the faculty to include several leading conservatives, to the
delight of the Federalist Society and other conservative legal groups
that consider the school "too liberal."

Kagan's views on abortion are more difficult to ascertain than those
of Wood. Kagan wasn't asked about her views on abortion during her
confirmation hearing for solicitor general.

However, the anti-choice women's group Susan B. Anthony List opposed
her nomination because of her lack of judicial experience, since Kagan
had never argued a case in any court. But the group acknowledged that
Kagan was "well credentialed" because she was dean of
Harvard Law School, her alma mater, at the time.

Right to life groups also opposed Kagan because of statements she had
made earlier in her career. She had criticized Rust v. Sullivan, a
1991 U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding a ruling that prohibited
recipients of Title X funds from counseling and referring women for
abortion.

As a clerk to Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, she authored a
memo suggesting that faith-based groups that operate pregnancy centers
should not play a role in counseling pregnant teens because they would
be unable to do so without injecting their views.

Obama also interviewed Kagan for Souter's seat. Like Sotomayor who
won the position, 49-year-old Kagan grew up in New York City, attended
local schools and received her bachelor's degree from Princeton.
Kagan, who is single, would be the third Jew on the court if
confirmed.

Kagan was confirmed by the Senate for solicitor general by a 61-to-31
vote, one vote over the number needed to avoid a filibuster. Kagan may
get more Senate support this time. Orrin Hatch of Utah, the most
senior Republican, said last week that Kagan was
"brilliant." Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, one of
only seven Senate Republicans to vote for Sotomayor and the only GOP
member of the Judiciary Committee to do so, praised Kagan's work as
solicitor general.

Sharon Johnson is a New York-based freelance writer.

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