Former Georgia Supreme Court Justice Leah Ward Sears, an expert in family law and the first African-American woman to serve as a State Supreme Court chief justice, was on Obama’s short list last year.
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Sears retired from the Georgia Supreme Court last June to teach, work for a think tank and join the Atlanta office of Schiff Harden, a law firm headquartered in Chicago. Sears was out of the country Monday and unavailable for comment.
After it was disclosed that she was being considered to succeed Souter, Sears said in a interview, “I like being thought of, because that means I’m being well thought of.”
Sears broke a number of barriers as a judge. When appointed by Gov. Zell Miller in 1992 to the state Supreme Court, she was the first woman and youngest person ever to sit on the court. In 1995, Sears became the nation’s first black woman to preside over a state Supreme Court as chief justice.
Don Samuel, an Atlanta criminal defense attorney, said Sears would be a good pick for the nation’s highest court because she would bring a new perspective. Unlike all the court’s current justices, he noted, she has not served as a federal appeals court judge.
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