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Monday, September 03, 2012
Vacancy #2 on Supreme Court 2012 - "Daniels has third chance to appoint woman to Supreme Court "
That is the headline to this story by Dan Carden in the NWI Times, but the bulk of the story is about one of the three candidates: "Indianapolis attorney Geoffrey Slaughter, 49, [who] was born in Gary, grew up in Crown Point and lived in Lake County until 2002." More from the story:
INDIANAPOLIS | Will the third time be the charm?The Indiana Judicial Nominating Commission last month formally sent Gov. Mitch Daniels its three recommended candidates to fill a vacancy on the Indiana Supreme Court.
They include a Crown Point native and a woman, Judge Loretta Rush of Lafayette. * * *
Daniels said regardless of demands from prominent lawyers and newspaper editorials that he select a woman, he is focused on appointing the best possible justice regardless of gender.
"I won't sacrifice merit, integrity, temperament," Daniels said. "In short, I won't sacrifice quality for that or any other demographic reason." * * *
Daniels said he's happy to use gender "to break a tie," but in his previous appointments, Steven David and Mark Massa were clearly the best candidates for the court, he said.
The governor has until October 15 to select the new justice. * * *
[Slaughter] was covaledictorian of Crown Point High School in 1981 and attended Indiana University in Bloomington where he earned a bachelor's degree in economics, an MBA and his law degree.
He clerked for Lake Superior Judge James Letsinger for a summer before spending two years clerking for a federal judge in South Bend.
Slaughter, a Republican, was an associate at the Chicago law firm of Kirkland and Ellis for five years before working as special counsel in the Indiana attorney general's office under three Democratic attorneys general, including Gary Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson.
Freeman-Wilson said Slaughter would be "an awesome justice."
"He's very thoughtful and deliberative in addition to really knowing the law and being very diligent and hard-working," Freeman-Wilson said. "He has a great demeanor that would lend itself well to the judiciary."
Slaughter is a partner at the Indianapolis law firm of Taft, Stettinius and Hollister where he recently helped invalidate a portion of a Hammond ordinance charging higher rental registration fees to landlords who live outside the city.
During his Aug. 8 interview with the nominating commission, Slaughter said the Supreme Court's duty is to ensure it is "getting the law right."
"A judge's most solemn responsibility is to do his or her best to apply the law as those who wrote the law -- whether it's a constitutional provision, a statutory provision or a regulation or rule -- drafted it," he said.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on September 3, 2012 10:02 AM
Posted to Vacancy #2 on Supreme Court 2012