PRESS RELEASE: Supreme Court
May 1, 2009
by The New Agenda
|For Immediate Release
The “Fairer Sex” Imperative for Sound Supreme Court
The New Agenda calls on President Obama to select a woman to fill Justice Souter’s seat
The New Agenda, a non-partisan national movement advocating for all women, called on President Obama to fill the seat that will be vacated by Justice Souter with a qualified woman. Currently only one of nine positions on the nation’s highest court is a woman.
“Women’s experiences, expectations, and lives are sufficiently different from men’s that men can not represent women no matter how sympathetic they may be,” said Nancy Hopkins, MIT biology professor – a leader in her field and New Agenda co-founder. “Women are best represented by women. The fact that only one of nine Supreme Court Justices is a woman is an enormous injustice to the women of the United States. We expect – we demand – that President Obama begin to correct this injustice.”
Last week Hopkins was awarded one of Women’s eNews 2009 21 Leaders for the 21st Century – a distinction shared with Lily Ledbetter. Hopkins knows what it’s like to be in a field dominated by men who are highly educated and smart, but often clueless about gender. Hopkins was in the audience when Larry Summers famously stated that girls are genetically inferior to men when it comes to math and science – a statement Hopkins’ life and career strongly refutes.
The field of law would benefit greatly from a feminine perspective. Upon learning that John Roberts would take her place, former Justice Sandra Day O’Connor declared him “good in every way, except he’s not a woman.”
“There is an amazing pool of incredibly talented women who are leaders in the field of law,” said The New Agenda co-founder Amy Siskind. “We look forward to President Obama selecting one of them.”
To reinforce the message that there is a rich pool of candidates, The New Agenda released the following list of exemplar candidates for the Supreme Court seat.
- Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm: Harvard Law School graduate, former federal prosecutor and a county attorney
- Kathleen Sullivan: dean of the Stanford Law School after teaching at Harvard Law School. Has argued key cases before the Supreme Court
- Diane Pamela Wood: longtime professor at the University of Chicago Law School, federal appeals court judge (7th Circuit)
- Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears: the first black woman to be appointed chief justice in any state
- Kimberly McLane Wardlaw: federal appeals court judge in California, and would be the first Hispanic woman on the Supreme Court.
- Sonia Sototomayor: 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
- Sandra Lea Lynch: chief judge of the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
- Elena Kagan: U.S. Solicitor General
- M. Margaret McKeown: 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
- Pamela S. Karlan: Stanford University law professor
I think all new court appointments should be female until the court is 52% female. But I would bet Obama will appoint a man, that man will not be clearly pro choice and the “feminists” at NOW will rush out and fluff his choice. Hopefully I am a pessimist but I bet I am a realist.
- I was just thinking about this – time for Obama to atone and nominate a woman………..
I’m with Bes. There is no good reason to not appoint women to the Supreme Court until we are, at the least, proportionally represented. And it wouldn’t hurt to have more than 50%!
I’m a pessimist when it comes to Obama too. Whether he picks a woman or not, I agree that his pick very likely won’t be a pro-choice.
All those women sound good except for Kagan and Karlan.
[...] New Agenda calls on President Obama to select a woman to fill Justice Souter’s [...]
love this – please help push for a woman on the court – no more Boyz Klub.
thanks New Agenda!
I agree with the press release. It’s time for Pres. Obama to demonstrate a real commitment to women and appoint a woman to fill Justice Souter’s seat and any others he has the opportunity to fill until we reach 52+% of the bench. Our voices should be loud an clear on all other judicial appointments this administration has the opportunity to fill.
I believe that Pres. Bush left more than 30 unfilled judicial appointments on the table for Pres. Obama to fill. The New Agenda can be the voice for women that has been missing on the national scene. Thank you for the work you are doing to benefit women!
[...] Justice Souter announced that he would step down, your organization sprang into action and issued a press release calling on President Obama to pick from a list of qualified women to fill that [...]
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The New Agenda is a 501(c)(4) organization dedicated to improving the lives of women and girls by bringing about systemic change in the media, at the workplace, at school and at home. More...