by Clerquette
You can email Clerquette at [email protected], or find her on Facebook and Twitter!
Hello, dear readers. Clerquette has missed your virtual companionship, and prefaces today's thoughts with a sincere apology for her virtual neglect. Perhaps absence makes the heart grow fonder, and now we can have makeup blog.
Alas, Clerquette returns with a bit of a judicial bummer. Specifically, we were deeply saddened to learn, earlier today, that Judge Karen Williams will gracefully be hanging up her robes. Judge Williams is, as we know, the fabulous chief jurist for the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Appointed to the court in 1992 by the first of several Presidents Bush, Williams was both the first female judge AND the first Chiefette of the famously conservative Fourth Circuit. You go, girl!
But wait: there's more! In 2004, Judge Williams earned another distinguished honor, which may resonate with special significance to Article III groupies like you, dear readers. What, you ask, could gild the lily of Judge Williams' accomplishments? Well, if you guessed "Nomination to the auspicious ranks of the Superhotties of the Federal Judiciary," you are correct.
Although Judge Williams was, technically, an untimely nomination, Clerquette's predecessor/co-blogress found her too irresistible to pass up. Clerquette defers to A3G's artful description of Judge Williams' hotness, as follows:
Judge Williams, 53, "runs circles around your nominated crew!" (Her nominator blames her exclusion on anti-conservative, anti-Fourth Circuit bias.) Judge Williams was described in the New York Times Magazine as "a tall, slender woman with delicate features and a regal carriage" (in this piece, a thinly veiled attack upon the Fourth Circuit). A "lovely Southern belle," Judge Williams is known around Orangeburg, South Carolina, as "Miss Karen" (despite being married; as her nominator explains, "the first thing one must learn about Orangeburg is that every woman is referred to as Miss"). The well-heeled Miss Karen has a private plane, in case she ever needs to get to Richmond in a hurry, and "a personal shopper, to keep her looking elegant." Judge Williams, a 1992 appointee of President George H.W. Bush, is perhaps most well-known as the author of the Fourth Circuit's opinion, later reversed by the Supreme Court in Dickerson v. United States, holding that Miranda v. Arizona had been overruled by statute.
Judge Williams, who is foxy at 57, announced her retirement today. Her decision to step down is attributed to her diagnosis of early-onset Alzheimers disease. Although Judge Williams is still livin' large, she explained in a statement that:
[She] has been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's and while she is presently able to perform her judicial duties, because of the nature of the disease she has elected to retire so any future decisions would not be called into question," said a statement from her Orangeburg office released late this afternoon.
In this blogress's humble opinion, Judge Williams grace under difficult (and immensely sad) circumstances distinguish her as a woman whose judicial character rivals her superhotness. Godspeed, Miss Karen!
(BTW, Groupies: any thoughts on Judge Williams' possible replacement would be greatly appreciated.)
Regardless of political affiliation it is very sad to hear of a judge who is diagnosed with this terrible disease. It is especially sad to learn of one so obviously active and who has so much to to give to the public. I applaud her courage and hope that she will have many years before this disease takes her dignity from her.
Joyce Krutick Craig
U.S. Administrative Law Judge (Ret.)
Posted by: judgejoyce | July 12, 2009 at 11:22 PM