Miscellaneous

A Bench without a Bicycle

By Anne Skove, Esq.

Thanks to our alert former co-worker, Richard Hoffman, for tipping us off to a recent radio program about women on the bench.

Host Kojo Nnamdi had a great lineup: Fred Strebeigh of Yale, Emory Law's Victoria Nourse, NJEP's Lynn Hecht Schafran (whose name you may recall from her many other efforts on behalf of women judges), and NOW's Pat Reuss (shown here making a point).

Mr. Strebeigh had a telling story from the Nixon administration. According to Richard: Seems that for pure political reasons, Nixon put out a story that he might appoint a woman to the Supreme Court [...] It was a pure political game as he had no real intention to do it.

Meanwhile, Chief Justice Burger fell for it hook, line, and sinker and apparently circulated a letter to the other justices, saying he would resign if the President went so far as to appoint a woman.

(We wonder how not amused Chief Justice Burger would be that a woman now presides over his brainchild, the National Center for State Courts?)

See History behind the Headlines: Women and the Law, The Kojo Nnamdi Show (April 21, 2009).

Full post as published by court-o-rama.org on April 25, 2009 (boomark / email).