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Diane Wood

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Diane Pamela Wood
File:Diane Wood in 2008.JPG
Wood in 2008
Judge on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals
Incumbent
Assumed office
1995
Nominated byBill Clinton
Preceded byWilliam Joseph Bauer
Personal details
Born (1950-07-04) July 4, 1950 (age 74)
Plainfield, New Jersey
NationalityUnited States
Spouse(s)Robert L. Sufit
Dennis J. Hutchinson
Alma materUniversity of Texas at Austin
University of Texas School of Law

Diane Pamela Wood (born July 4, 1950) is a federal judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, and a Senior Lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School.

Wood was born in Plainfield, New Jersey. When she was young, she moved with her family to Texas, where her mother still lives. Wood graduated with a B.A., receiving highest honors and special honors in English, from the University of Texas at Austin's Plan II Honors program in 1971. She earned her J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law in 1975, where she was an editor of the Texas Law Review, graduating with high honors and Order of the Coif. Wood then clerked for Judge Irving Goldberg of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals from 1975 to 1976 and for Associate Justice Harry Blackmun of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1976 to 1977. She was among the first women to clerk for the Supreme Court.

After working in private practice and the Executive Branch, Wood became the third women ever hired as a law professor at the University of Chicago Law School. Wood was nominated to the Seventh Circuit by President Bill Clinton on March 31, 1995. She was confirmed unanimously by the United States Senate and received her commission on June 30, 1995. Wood has been called an “unflinching and spirited intellectual counterweight" to the Seventh Circuit's Richard Posner and Frank Easterbrook.[1] Wood is considered a likely candidate for the U.S. Supreme Court in the event President Obama has the opportunity to make another appointment.[2][3][4][5][6]

Early life and family

Wood was born in Plainfield, New Jersey and grew up in nearby Westfield, New Jersey. Her father was an accountant at Exxon, and her mother worked at the local Girl Scout Council. She is the middle of three children; she has an older sister Judy and a younger brother Bob. When Wood was sixteen, Exxon transferred her father’s job to Houston, Texas, and the family moved there. Wood graduated as valedictorian from Westchester High School in 1968 and went on to the University of Texas at Austin, in the Plan II Honors program. She graduated in May 1971, having earned a B.A. with highest honors and special honors in English. At the time, she intended to go on to graduate studies in comparative literature. However, she decided to go to law school instead, and enrolled in the University of Texas School of Law in 1972.[7]

Wood earned her J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law in 1975 with Order of the Coif. She clerked for Judge Irving Goldberg of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals from 1975 to 1976 and for Associate Justice Harry Blackmun of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1976 to 1977.

Professional career

Wood was an attorney-advisor for the Office of the Legal Adviser of the U.S. Department of State from 1977 to 1978. From 1978 to 1980, she practiced at the law firm Covington & Burling in Washington, D.C.[8][9]

Wood began her teaching career as an assistant professor of law at Georgetown University from 1980 to 1981. In 1981, Wood settled in Chicago and joined the faculty of the University of Chicago Law School. She was the third woman ever hired as a law professor at the University of Chicago and the only woman on the faculty when she began in 1981. Wood served as Professor of Law from 1989 to 1992, Associate Dean from 1990-1995, and the Harold J. and Marion F. Green Professor of International Legal Studies from 1992 to 1995. Since her appointment to the Seventh Circuit, Wood has continued to teach at the University of Chicago Law School as a Senior Lecturer in Law, along with fellow Seventh Circuit judges Frank Easterbrook and Richard Posner.[10]

Wood was a special assistant to the Assistant Attorney General at the U.S. Department of Justice from 1985 to 1987. From 1993 to 1995, she served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General for international, appellate, and policy in the Antitrust Division or the Department of Justice.

Wood holds memberships in the American Law Institute, the International Academy of Comparative Law, the American Society of International Law, and the American Bar Association. She has served on the governing councils of the ABA’s Section of Antitrust Law and its Section of International Law and Practice. Wood has pursued various law reform projects through the American Bar Association and the Brookings Institution Project on Civil Justice Reform. She was also instrumental in developing the University of Chicago’s first policy on sexual harassment.

Federal judicial service

Wood was nominated by President Bill Clinton on March 31, 1995, to a seat vacated when William Joseph Bauer took senior status. She was confirmed unanimously by the United States Senate and received her commission on June 30, 1995. Wood became the second woman ever to sit on the Seventh Circuit. On the bench, Wood has been called "unflinching and spirited intellectual counterweight" to the Seventh Circuit's Richard Posner and Frank Easterbrook.[11] She is also known for building consensus on the court and rallying other justices around her positions.[12]

Wood is considered a likely candidate for the U.S. Supreme Court in the event President Obama was given the opportunity to appoint someone to the bench.[2][3][4][5][6] The speculation intensified after Justice David Souter's retirement announcement,[13][14][15] and Wood was the first candidate interviewed for the post by President Obama, who met with her at the White House while she was visiting from Chicago.[16]

Noteworthy rulings

  • Walker v. O'Brien, 216 F.3d 626 (7th Cir. 2000): Wood, writing for the panel, held that the requirements of the Prison Litigation Reform Act do not apply to properly characterized habeas corpus actions because those actions are not “civil actions” within the meaning of the Act.
  • Fornalik v. Perryman, 223 F.3d 523 (7th Cir. 2000): Wood, writing for the panel, held that an Immigration and Naturalization Service district office order putting a minor alien in deferred status pending an application to proceed as an abused child of a visa recipient under the Violence Against Women Act took precedence over an earlier removal order issued by another INS district office.
  • Goldwasser v. Ameritech Corp., 222 F.3d 390 (7th Cir. 2000): Wood, writing for the panel, held that a violation of the 1996 Telecommunications Act was not sufficient to state a claim under general antitrust laws.
  • Solid Waste Agency v. United States Army Corps of Engineers, 191 F.3d 845 (1999): Wood, writing for the panel, held that the decision to regulate isolated waters based on their actual use as a habitat by migratory birds was within Congress’ power under the Commerce Clause. The Supreme Court reversed. 531 U.S. 159 (2001).
  • National Organization for Women v. Scheidler, 267 F.3d 687 (7th Cir. 2001): Wood, writing for the panel, held that the district court did not err in concluding that the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act authorized private plaintiffs to seek injunctive relief. In addition, the court recognized the First Amendment protected the rights of abortion protesters but held that the injunction issued by the district court, which prohibited violent conduct by protesters, struck a proper balance and avoided any risk of curtailing activities protected by the First Amendment. The Supreme Court reversed. 537 U.S. 393 (2003). Many have misinterpreted the decision as one primarily concerned with the rights of abortion protesters, but Supreme Court commentators clarify, "Wood’s opinion was a judgment primarily about injunctive relief and the breadth of the racketeering statute, not on the right to provide an abortion or to protest."[17]
  • St. John's United Church of Christ v. City of Chicago, 502 F.3d 616 (7th Cir. 2007): Wood, writing for the majority, held that the O'Hare Modernization Act’s amendment of the Illinois Religious Freedom Restoration Act did not violate the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment because it was a law of general applicability that did not target the plaintiff Church.
  • United States v. Warner & Ryan, 498 F.3d 666 (7th Cir. 2007): Wood, writing for the majority, affirmed the convictions on various criminal charges of former Illinois Governor George Ryan and his associate Lawrence E. Warner.
  • Bloch v. Frischholz, 533 F.3d 562 (7th Cir. 2008) (in dissent): The majority of a panel of the Seventh Circuit held that a condominium associate could prohibit residents from putting objects on their doors without violating the Fair Housing Act. The result was that Jewish residents could not put mezuzot on their doorposts. Dissenting, Wood argued plaintiffs had established a claim for intentional religious discrimination under the Fair Housing Act because there was sufficient evidence in the record to conclude that the rule was being applied in a way that would constitute a constructive eviction of observant Jews. The en banc Seventh Circuit reheard the case, reversed the panel majority, and sided with Judge Wood's position. Observes have recognized that Wood was able to rally the whole court around a position protective of religious freedom and practice.[12][18].
  • Germano v. International Profit Association, 544 F.3d 798 (7th Cir. 2008). Wood, writing for the panel, held that statements transmitted by deaf individuals using a communications assistant in a telecommunications relay service conversation are not hearsay.

Writings

Wood has been described as a "rock star of the written word" [1] and has written extensively in various areas of the law, and a full bibliography can be found at the University of Chicago Law School website. Some representative works include:

  • The Bedrock of Individual Rights in Times of Natural Disaster, 51 How. L.J. 747 (2008).
  • ‘Original Intent’ Versus ‘Evolution’, The Scrivener 7 (Summer 2005) (also published in Green Bag Almanac & Reader 267 (2007)).
  • Our 18th Century Constitution in the 21st Century World, 80 N.Y.U. L. Rev. 1079 (2005).
  • Reflections on the Judicial Oath, 8 Green Bag 2d 177 (2005).
  • The Rule of Law in Times of Stress, 70 U. Chi. L. Rev. 455 (2003).
  • International Harmonization of Antitrust Law: The Tortoise or the Hare?, 3 Chi. J. Int’l L. 391 (2002).
  • Sex Discrimination in Life and Law, 1999 U. Chi. Legal F. 1.
  • Generalist Judges in a Specialized World, 50 SMU L. Rev. 1755 (1997).
  • The Impossible Dream: Real International Antitrust, 1992 U. Chi. Legal F. 277.
  • ‘Unfair’ Trade Injury: A Competition-Based Approach, 41 Stan. L. Rev. 1153 (1989).
  • Class Actions: Joinder or Representational Device?, 1983 Sup. Ct. Rev. 459.

Personal

Wood is married to Robert Sufit, a professor of neurology at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine, to whom she was introduced by her fellow Seventh Circuit Judge Ilana Rovner.[19] She previously was married in 1978 to Dennis Hutchinson, a professor at the University of Chicago School of Law.[19] Wood married her first husband, Steve Van, while both were students in law school.[20] Wood has three children with Hutchinson and three stepchildren.[21] She plays oboe and English horn in the North Shore Chamber Orchestra in Evanston, Illinois and in the Chicago Bar Association Symphony Orchestra in Chicago, Illinois.

Wood lives in Hinsdale, Illinois.[19]

See also

References

  1. ^ Neil A. Lewis, Potential Justice Offers a Counterpoint in Chicago , New York Times (May 11, 2009).
  2. ^ a b de Vogue, Ariane (February 4, 2010). "White House Prepares for Possibility of 2 Supreme Court Vacancies". ABC News.
  3. ^ a b Jan Crawford, Obama Skewers Court--and Signals Change Ahead, CBS News (January 28, 2010).
  4. ^ a b Adam Liptak, Ginsburg Has Surgery for Pancreatic Cancer, New York Times (February 5, 2009).
  5. ^ a b Carrie Johnson, Ginsburg illness puts focus on Obama's choices Washington Post (February 6, 2009).
  6. ^ a b Abdon M. Pallasch, Could Chicago's Judge Wood fill Ginsburg's seat if she resigns from Supreme Court?, Chicago Tribune (February 8, 2009).
  7. ^ Eric Herman, Wood Comes to Seventh Circuit with Credentials and Common Sense, Chicago Lawyer (September 1995), p. 4.
  8. ^ http://www.law.uchicago.edu/faculty/wood-d
  9. ^ http://www.abanet.org/antitrust/at-bios/wood-diane.pdf
  10. ^ http://www.law.uchicago.edu/faculty/?Letter=%
  11. ^ Neil A. Lewis, Potential Justice Offers a Counterpoint in Chicago , New York Times (May 11, 2009).
  12. ^ a b Pallasch, Abdon M. (November 13, 2009). "Chicago mezuzah discrimination federal case revived". Chicago Sun Times. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  13. ^ Neil A. Lewis, "Potential Justice Offers a Counterpoint in Chicago, New York Times (May 11, 2009).
  14. ^ Associated Press, A look at potential Obama nominees to high court, (April 30, 2009).
  15. ^ Greg Stohr & James Rowley, Obama May Lean Toward Centrist for First U.S. High Court Pick, Bloomberg.com (May 2, 2009)
  16. ^ Zeleny, Jeff (May 20, 2009). "Search for Supreme Court Justice Reaches Interview Stage". New York Times. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  17. ^ Kristina Moore, Nominee Analysis: Judge Diane Wood, (May 20th, 2009).
  18. ^ Michael Miner, The Mezuzah Case — A Victory for Judge Diane Wood, Chicago Reader (November 13, 2009)
  19. ^ a b c http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-diane-wood-24-may24,0,4783025.story?page=2
  20. ^ http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-diane-wood-24-may24,0,4783025.story
  21. ^ Capital University Law School Sullivan Lecture - About the Speaker
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