Garza?

[isomin at gmu.edu]

I know Garza from my time clerking for another judge on the Fifth Circuit. He is VERY smart and one of the best-prepared judges I've ever seen. When we had a sitting with him, he often raised insightful points in oral argument that the lawyers (including some very good ones) had missed.  Garza is also extremely friendly and personable, which would help him to deal with internal court politics and "count to five". 

I have always believed that ideology is a valid consideration in deciding whether or not to support a judicial nominee (especially for the Supreme Court), so I can understand if some oppose Garza due to opposition to his conservative ideology. At the same time, I am strongly of the opinion that Garza would be an excellent nominee on all the relevant nonideological metrics - even aside from the political advantages of his being a Hispanic.

Ilya Somin
Assistant Professor of Law
George Mason University School of Law
3301 Fairfax Dr.
Arlington, VA 22201
ph: 703-993-8069
fax: 703-993-8202
e-mail: isomin at gmu.edu
Website: http://mason.gmu.edu/~isomin/
-------------- next part --------------
Skipped content of type multipart/alternative-------------- next part --------------
_______________________________________________
To post, send message to Conlawprof at lists.ucla.edu
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/conlawprof

Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be viewed as private.  Anyone can subscribe to the list and read messages that are posted; people can read the Web archives; and list members can (rightly or wrongly) forward the messages to others.