Infinity says, vet the women first

The Infinity Project has weighed in on the upcoming Supreme Court nomination, courtesy of Marie Failinger, assistant dean for academic affairs at Hamline University School of Law. The Infinity Project is dedicated to increasing the gender diversity of the federal bench to ensure the quality of justice in the Eighth Circuit.

Let's see. Someone who is "thoughtful, brilliant, caring and modest. . . a voice of reason." Who is "nice, well-mannered, and thoroughly decent." Someone whose opinions "are soft-spoken and gentle. . . .precise, nuanced, and carefully reasoned but. . resonate with conviction." Someone who is "temperate," in whom there is no "bombast, sarcasm or disrespect." "A serious thinker, a prodigious reader, a hard worker, and a scrupulously careful lawyer" with an "almost romantic passion for the law." Someone who says that at the end of the day, real human beings are being affected by the Supreme Court's decisions, so that justices need to employ all of their powers of heart, mind and being to get it right. Someone whose life didn't fit the standard pattern.

Woman or man?

We should want these qualities in a Supreme Court justice, particularly on a Court which has in recent years issued many contentious, even sarcastic opinions reflecting anything but this description. We should look for those whose life experiences help them understand a broader swath of human beings than those the current justices know.

So let's start with the pool of likely suspects. If you gave me this description, I would have looked for a woman, though surely many men would also fit it. In this case, a man did--this is a description of Justice David Souter by those who watched him most carefully. . . And maybe that's where the search will end, another guy who looks like him.

But if we want the Court to keep---and improve---its current balance of character and perspective, shouldn't we go to the "most likely suspects" first? After all, that's how it has always been done--just with a different set of qualifications. So, let's recognize and celebrate these values in our justices, and insist that the women who have them be vetted first.