Joan Larsen Quotes
When I first met Antonin Scalia, I was a small child with one brown ponytail atop my head. Which is odd, because I was a full-grown woman, and my hair was short and blond. Still, sitting on the black leather sofa in his chambers, I remember shrinking.
Larsen, Joan L. "What I Learned From Justice Scalia." The New York Times, The New York Times Company, 16 Feb. 2016, p. A23.
She had been asked how well prepared she was to be a Supreme Court Justice. Many Justices believe that the post is so unique that no amount of lower court experience can prepare one for the Supreme Court.
He was referring to the Presidential election of 2000 where the Supreme Court by a 5-4 decision reached a decision that as a de facto matter made George W. Bush President over Al Gore.
This was more than a general observation at the time. Elena Kagan had just gone through difficult and extended Senate confirmation hearings to be a Justice of the Supreme Court. She was confirmed but there was a substantial Conservative opposition to her on the grounds that she had not served as a judge, although she had appeared as an attorney in many cases and as Solicitor General of the United States she argued cases before the Supreme Court. To many it was surprising that a sitting justice would so currently take a public position which could be interpreted as criticizing one wing of Congress, especially since that wing had been criticized for just playing petty politics and having no real substantive issues.
Joan Louise Larsen is an American attorney and jurist serving as a United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. She previously was an Associate Justice of the Michigan Supreme Court from 2015 to 2017.
