Diane Lockhart-McVeigh
Diane Lockhart-McVeigh | |
|---|---|
| Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States | |
| Assumed office April 10, 2017 | |
| President | Hillary Rodham |
| Preceded by | Antonin Scalia |
| Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Illinois | |
| In office January 2011 – April 9, 2017 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Diane Lockhart May 2, 1962 Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse | Kurt McVeigh (m. 2010) |
Diane Lockhart-McVeigh (born May 2, 1962) is an American attorney and jurist who serves as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. She was nominated by President Hillary Rodham on January 31, 2017, and has served since April 10, 2017. She is the fifth woman to serve on the court.
Lockhart-McVeigh was born in Chicago to Mary Lockhart and former U.S. representative Roy Lockhart and graduated summa cum laude from the University of Chicago in 1986 and received her Juris Doctor from Yale Law School in 1989. Shortly after she worked as an Assistant United States Attorney for five years before entering private practice in 1994. She would later joined the law firm of famous Chicago attorney Jonas Stern and became a named partner in 1997. After the retirement of Stern in 2009, Lockhart-McVeigh became the senior named partner at the firm.
In 2010, it was announced that Governor-elect of Illinois Peter Florrick indented to nominate Lockhart-McVeigh to the Supreme Court of Illinois to fill the vacancy of Justice Byrne. She was seated to the court on February 10, 2011, after some slight controversary that Florrick selected Lockhart-McVeigh because of her connection to his wife Alicia Florrick who was an equity partner at her law firm. Florrick would later be elected vice president of the United States under president Hillary Rodham in 2016 and was on the shortlist to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court after the death of Antonin Scalia. After a personal recommendation by Vice President Florrick, President Rodham announced on January 23, 2017, that she would be nominating Lockhart-McVeigh.
Three months later, Lockhart-McVeigh's nomination was sent to the U.S. Senate where she faced controversary because of her opposite political and judicial philosophy compared to Justice Scalia and that her former law firm defended accused drug lord and businessman Lamond Bishop. The Senate voted 51-49 to confirm her nomination, with all Democrats and one Republican in favor of her nomination. She is considered the most liberal justice and part of the liberal bloc of the court.