On Monday, President Obama nominated Supreme Court of Virginia Justice Barbara Milano Keenan to fill one of the vacancies on the Fourth Circuit. The White House press release is here. Our friends at the VLW Blog have the story, as does WaPo and, by now, everybody with Google Reader.
Not much to add. It’s hard to talk about Justice Keenan without using the word “trailblazer.” She has served on each of the four levels of Virginia’s court system (General District Court, Circuit Court, Court of Appeals, and Supreme Court). She was the first woman to sit on three of those benches; by the time she made it to the Supreme Court in 1991, Justice Keenan was just the second woman to sit on the Court. She’s scary smart and, as readers of this blog know, a class act. We wish her the best of luck with her confirmation.