Kathleen Sullivan is hands down one of the most qualified candidates.
She is a Marshall scholar and former Stanford Law dean whom
constitutional law legend Laurence Tribe once called “the most
extraordinary student I had ever had.” She is the author of the
nation’s leading casebook in constitutional law, has litigated before
the Supreme Court, and has been named one of the 100 most influential
lawyers in America by the National Law Journal. Sullivan was also a
professor of law at Harvard Law School from 1984 until 1993. She joined
Stanford Law School in 1993 and became the Stanley Morrison Professor
of Law in 1996. Sullivan then served as the dean of Stanford Law School
from 1999 until 2004, when she voluntarily stepped down to serve as the
inaugural director of a new Stanford center on constitutional law.
Since 2004, she has been the Stanley Morrison Professor of Law at
Stanford Law School.
In addition to this impressive list of qualifications, Sullivan is also
a woman and openly gay which would bring some much needed diversity to
the Supreme Court.
If chosen, Sullivan would become the first ever openly gay Justice and
third female Justice in United States history to serve on the Supreme
Court leading to a Court that more truly reflects the composition of
the American population. Supreme Court Justice David Souter is planning to retire at the end of
the current court term after 19 years on the bench. The vacancy will
give President Obama his first chance to name a member of the high
court and begin to shape its future direction. We are urging the
consideration and appointment of Kathleen Sullivan.