Judicial Experience: What’s Good Enough for the Gander?

Moments after President Obama nominated Solicitor General Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court, the right rushed out with silly spin that Ms. Kagan is not qualified because she has never served as a judge.  Predictably, my home state’s senator, Jim DeMint, jumped right in:

“I’m concerned that she has no judicial experience to give Americans confidence that she will be impartial in her decisions,” DeMint said. “However, I will withhold judgment until she has the opportunity to present her views and the Senate has time to fully examine her record in academia.”

The list of Chief Justices and Justices who were never judges is damning enough.  Not to mention the fact that the Solicitor General represents all of us before the Supreme Court.

To help further douse this dustup, I looked into the experience brought by all current members of the Court:

Justice Sotomayor:      10 years, 10 months, U. S. Court of Appeals (2^nd Cir.), 6 years, 2 months, 1 day, U. S. District Court, Southern District of N.Y.

Justice Alito:               15 years, 9 months, 1 day, U. S. Court of Appeals (3^rd Cir.)

Justice Breyer:             13 years, 7 months, 23 days, U. S. Court of Appeals (1^st Cir.)

Justice Ginsburg:         13 years, 1 month, 22 days, U. S. Court of Appeals (D. C. Cir.)

Justice Kennedy:         12 years, 10 months, 24 days, U. S. Court of Appeals (9^th Cir.)

Justice Scalia:              4 years, 1 month, 9 days, U. S. Court of Appeals (D.C. Cir.)

Justice Roberts:           2 years, 3 months, 27 days, U. S. Court of Appeals (D.C. Cir.)

Justice Thomas:           1 year, 7 months, 11 days, U. S. Court of Appeals (D.C. Cir.)

Senator DeMint railed against Justice Sotomayor, the most experienced justice, yet adores Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Scalia and Thomas, the least experienced justices.

How typical.