SCOTUS ROUNDUP: Diane Wood in D.C.

U.S. Appeals Court Judge Diane Wood, who is on President Obama’s shortlist to replace David Souter on the Supreme Court, is in D.C. on Wednesday.

ABC’s Legalities blog reports that Wood is said to be in D.C. to attend a judicial conference. But the blog reports that Wood mysteriously didn’t show up to teach her class at the University of Chicago Law School on Tuesday.

The blog also says, based on its sources, that Wood is one of the top three contenders for the job – with Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor.

This news comes as the Wall Street Journal reports that Obama started interviewing possible nominees on Tuesday…the same day that Govs. Jennifer Granholm (D-Mich.) and Deval Patrick (D-Mass.) were in D.C. Hmm.

Let’s not forget that the Election Law Blog predicted last week that Wood would be the pick and there is other speculation floating around the legal community that she is the likely pick.

And AboveTheLaw chats with Curt Levey, the Executive Director of the Committee for Justice, a conservative group. Of the names on the shortlist, Levey ranks who would be most problematic to conservatives. Wood, along with Sotomayor and Kathleen Sullivan, were in “most problematic” group where “judicial activism [is] guaranteed.” Kagan was in the next tier (so less problematic).

For more on Wood, be sure to check out Jeffrey Rosen’s piece in the New Republic in which he anoints her “the second coming of Ruth Bader Ginsburg.” Just saying, but Rosen’s piece seems to be as close to and endorsement as your going to get.

Meanwhile, SCOTUS blog provides its third installment of its review of Sotomayor’s legal writings.

jeremy.jacobs@digital-staging.thehill.com