Ever since Clarence Thomas began earning his 'honorary white male' status by desecrating the proud Supreme Court legal legacy of Justice Thurgood Marshall, many African Americans have hoped and prayed for the nomination of a progressive African-American justice to counterbalance the conservaidiocy and lockstep voting with Antonin Scalia coming from Uncle Thomas.With the recently announced retirement of Justice John Paul Stevens, President Obama now has a second opportunity to shape the Court. One of the candidates on the short list for the Supreme Court vacancy that has popped up in recent days is Leah Ward Sears, who ironically is a friend of Clarence Thomas.
She's a Cornell University and Emory University Law School grad who was the former chief justice of the Georgia Supreme Court. She stepped down last year and is now in private law practice in the ATL.
She's also a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.
She's turning 55 in June, and once again, it would be a historic pick as the first African American woman Supreme Court jurist.
Sears is already used to being a history maker. When she was nominated for the Georgia Supreme Court by then-Gov. Zell Miller in 1992, she became the first woman and the youngest person to ever sit on the court. She later became the first female African-American chief justice in US history. And best of all, in 2004 she handily won reelection as chief justice of the Georgia Supreme Court over her Republican opponent by a 62%-38% margin.
If President Obama is looking to put Republicans in a box like he did during last summer's confirmation fight with the Sotomayor nomination, Leah Ward Sears would be the perfect candidate.
One the Republifools would be hard pressed to filibuster without looking as racist and sexist as they did during last summer's Sotomayor confirmation hearings.
I'm hoping that Judge Sears not only is nominated by President Obama, but we get to see her in this fall's SCOTUS photo in October after she's confirmed.
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