The eighth Supreme Court Justice, Samuel Alito, is the second Justice on the Supreme Court to attend Yale Law School. He is also the second Italian on the United States Supreme Court. He grew up in Hamilton Township New Jersey. He received his under graduate degree from Princeton University. He then attended Yale Law School where he served as editor of the Yale Law Journal. He also studied Italian legal system for a while in Italy. Upon returning to the States, he practiced law and taught at Seton Hall University School of Law in Newark New Jersey. He is a member of the Federalist Society. Justice Alito is a member of the Catholic faith.
The ninth Supreme Court Justice is Sonia Sotomayor, who was born in the SE Bronx New York. She is the first Hispanic Supreme Court Judge and is of Puerto Rican descent and is the third Yale Law School trained Justice on the Supreme Court. She received her under graduate degree at Princeton University. After graduating from Princeton, Justice Sotomayor attended Yale Law School and was an editor on the Yale Law Journal. After graduating, she practiced law in New York City and taught at the law school at Columbia University. She is also one of the six Catholics on the Supreme Court.
As one can tell all of our Supreme Court Judges except for one graduated at either Yale or Harvard Law School. The exception to this rule is Judge Stevens who is the lone Protestant and non Ivy Leaguer, even though he attended the pricey Northwestern University Law School.
Clearly, he is the voice of all the ordinary Joe's and Jane's in the United States so whoever replaces him needs to be similarly situated. However, I think it important to let you know what kind of person President Obama is considering replacing his seat with. In recent weeks, five potential candidates have been named as a replacement for Justice Stevens.
The first candidate is Diane Wood who is a seventh circuit court of appeals Judge. Judge Wood is also a professor at the University of Chicago Law. She was born in New Jersey and moved with her family to Texas when she was sixteen years old. Her father worked for Exxon and was transferred to Houston Texas. Judge Wood received her B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin. She then attempted to obtain a doctorate at Yale University in Comparative Literature but changed her mind and ended up obtaining her law degree from the University of Texas School of Law. Judge Wood was the editor of the Texas Law Review when she was in college. Upon researching Judge Wood, it was discovered that Judge Wood has never disclosed her religion in print. So currently, her religion preferences are unknown. A Daily Kos article suggests that she is not religious at all but it is unclear as to whether that is accurate or the opinion of the editor to that article. Another article suggests she may be a Protestant. Her religious preferences need to be further explored and maybe some curious reporter will ask her if she believes in something divine and what faith she is.
The second candidate is the current United States Solicitor General, Elena Kagan. Ms Kagan was born in New York and grew up around the Hunter College area in Manhattan. Her father was one of the founders of Kagan and Lubic, a Real Estate Boutique firm in Manhattan. It is rumored that she is the cousin of Arch Neocons Robert and Frederick Kagan. She graduated from Princeton University. She received her masters in Philosophy at Worchester Law in Oxford England and then attended Harvard Law School where she was the supervising editor of the Harvard Law Review. After practicing law for a very short time, she started teaching at the University of Chicago Law School and became the first Dean of Harvard Law School and also taught at Harvard Law School. Ms. Kagan is of the Jewish faith.
The third candidate is Judge Merrick Garland, an appeals Judge for the D.C. Circuit. He was born in Lincolnwood Illinois. He attended under graduate school at Harvard University. He graduated from Harvard Law School and also taught at Harvard Law School. Judge Garland is of the Jewish faith.
The fourth candidate is American Legal Scholar, Cass Sunstein. Mr. Sunstein was born in Concord Massachusetts. He received his B.A. at Harvard University. He attended Harvard Law School and was the executive editor of the Harvard Civil Rights - Civil Liberties Law Review. Mr. Sunstein is currently a professor at both the University of Chicago Law School and Harvard Law School. He has also been a visiting professor at Columbia University. Mr. Sunstein is of the Jewish faith.
The fifth candidate that President Obama is considering is Harold Koh. Mr. Koh was the Dean of the Yale Law School. However, he has since the election of President Obama became a State Department Legal Advisor. Mr. Koh if selected would be the first Korean American lawyer to serve on the bench. Mr. Koh was raised in New Haven Connecticut. His father was a legal scholar and diplomat who fled Korea and was granted asylum in the United States. Mr. Koh's parents upon being granted asylum both taught at Yale University in New Haven Connecticut. Mr. Koh obtained his under graduate degree at Harvard then studied at Oxford in England. Upon returning to the States, he attended law school at Harvard Law School. After graduating Harvard Mr. Koh then started teaching at Yale and became the Dean of the Yale Law School. There have been several different reports on Mr. Koh about his religious preference. Some reports suggest that he is Protestant. Other reports suggest that he is Muslim due to a statement he supposedly made about Sharia Islamic Law. Mr. Koh's religious beliefs should be explored by curious reporters to determine with certainty what faith he is.
You will notice that I have reviewed the religious preference of each of the candidates as well as the Judge's sitting on the bench. I have also for your benefit obtained a 2007 Pew Research Center survey that lays out the religious landscape of America. In that research survey, 78.5 percent of Americans consider themselves Christians. 51.3 percent consider themselves Protestants, 23.9 percent consider themselves Catholic and 1.7 percent consider themselves Jewish. It would make sense to me that we would have four or five Justices that were Protestants yet we are about to loose our only Protestant and President Obama may not replace him with a Protestant or even necessarily a Christian. Additionally, it would make sense that we would have a couple of Catholics on the Court since they represent approximately 25 per cent of the population but we have six. It would make sense that we have one or two Jews on the court but now we are looking at having three Jews, six Catholics and no Protestants when over 51 per cent of the population is Protestant. It seems odd to me, but I do think it is something that President Obama should consider when selecting a Justice. Surely, President Obama could find one Protestant out of the one million one hundred forty three thousand three hundred fifty eight lawyers that are qualified to practice law in the United States to fill the Supreme Court seat. If you look at the list of candidates that is currently being tossed around, it appears that fifty one percent of the population may not be represented on the Supreme Court when President Obama makes his selection Additionally, surely, President Obama can find a candidate who did not graduate from Harvard or Yale or have any connection to those universities, since we already have five Justices from Harvard and three from Yale, out of the one million one hundred forty three thousand three hundred fifty eight lawyers. Surely, we can have one Justice that represents all the other law schools in the United States of America. To do anything less will be to leave over 51 percent of the Americans not represented on the Court and also will leave the other 48 states out of the Supreme Court selection process.
After making this list and doing this exercise to show you the current makeup of the Supreme Court I have realized why we are getting some of the ruling that we are receiving from this Court. Clearly, President Obama has a great opportunity over the years of his Presidency to balance the United States Supreme Court and take it away from the Elitist Universities in New England and make it a reflection of all the people of the fifty states of the United States of America. I am calling on President Obama to give the court back to the citizens and to take it away from the rich elite in the United States.
This is the first of several articles by Jill Simpson on the candidates for appointment to the Supreme Court.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
