Diane Wood
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Diane Pamela Wood (born July 4, 1950) is an American attorney who serves as a Senior
United States circuit judge In the United States, federal judges are judges who serve on courts established under Article Three of the U.S. Constitution. They include the chief justice and the associate justices of the U.S. Supreme Court, the circuit judges of the U.S. ...
of the
United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (in case citations, 7th Cir.) is the U.S. federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the courts in the following districts: * Central District of Illinois * Northern District of ...
, and a senior lecturer at the
University of Chicago Law School The University of Chicago Law School is the law school of the University of Chicago, a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. It is consistently ranked among the best and most prestigious law schools in the world, and has many dis ...
. After working in private practice and the executive branch, Wood became the third woman ever hired as a law professor at the
University of Chicago Law School The University of Chicago Law School is the law school of the University of Chicago, a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. It is consistently ranked among the best and most prestigious law schools in the world, and has many dis ...
. President
Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...
nominated her to the Seventh Circuit on March 31, 1995. She is considered a liberal intellectual counter to
Richard Posner Richard Allen Posner (; born January 11, 1939) is an American jurist and legal scholar who served as a federal appellate judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit from 1981 to 2017. A senior lecturer at the University of Chic ...
and
Frank H. Easterbrook Frank Hoover Easterbrook (born September 3, 1948) is an American lawyer, jurist, and legal scholar who has served as a United States circuit judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit since 1985. He was the Seventh Circuit's chief ...
.


Early life and education

Diane Pamela Wood was born on July 4, 1950, in Plainfield,
New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
, to Lucille Padmore Wood and Kenneth Reed Wood. She lived in nearby Westfield, New Jersey, where her father was an accountant at Exxon, and her mother worked for the Washington Rock
Girl Scout Girl Guides (known as Girl Scouts in the United States and some other countries) is a worldwide movement, originally and largely still designed for girls and women only. The movement began in 1909 when girls requested to join the then-grassroot ...
Council. She is the second of three children, with an older sister and a younger brother. When Wood was 16, her family moved to
Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 i ...
,
Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...
. In 1968, she graduated as
valedictorian Valedictorian is an academic title for the highest-performing student of a graduating class of an academic institution. The valedictorian is commonly determined by a numerical formula, generally an academic institution's grade point average (GPA ...
of Westchester High School in Houston. Wood graduated from the
University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,07 ...
in 1972 with a bachelor's degree in English with high honors. She was then accepted to
University of Texas School of Law The University of Texas School of Law (Texas Law) is the law school of the University of Texas at Austin. Texas Law is consistently ranked as one of the top law schools in the United States and is highly selective—registering the 8th lowest ac ...
. There, Wood was an editor of the ''
Texas Law Review The ''Texas Law Review'' is a student-edited and -produced law review affiliated with the University of Texas School of Law (Austin). It ranks number 6 on Washington & Lee University's list, number 11 on Google Scholar's list of top publications i ...
'' and a member of the Women's Legal Caucus. Wood earned her Juris Doctor from the University of Texas School of Law in 1975, graduating with high honors and
Order of the Coif The Order of the Coif is an honor society for United States law school graduates. The name is a reference to the ancient English order of advocates, the serjeants-at-law, whose courtroom attire included a coif—a white lawn or silk skullcap, whi ...
. She was among the first women at the University of Texas admitted as a member of the
Friar Society The Friar Society is the oldest honor society at the University of Texas at Austin. Origins The Friar Society was founded in 1911 by Curtice Rosser and Marion Levy. Eight members were initially selected in the charter group. Originally, four men ...
.


Career

Wood clerked for Judge Irving Goldberg of the
United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (in case citations, 5th Cir.) is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following federal judicial districts: * Eastern District of Louisiana * M ...
from 1975 to 1976 and for Justice Harry Blackmun of the
United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
from 1976 to 1977. She was one of the first women to serve as a law clerk for a Supreme Court justice. After clerking at the Supreme Court, Wood was an attorney-advisor for the Office of the Legal Adviser of the
United States Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government responsible for the country's fore ...
from 1977 to 1978. From 1978 to 1980, she practiced at the law firm
Covington & Burling Covington & Burling LLP is an American multinational law firm. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the firm advises clients on transactional, litigation, regulatory, and public policy matters. In 2021, Vault.com ranked Covington & Burling as ...
in
Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
Wood began her teaching career as an assistant professor of law at
Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...
from 1980 to 1981. In 1981, she settled in Chicago and joined the faculty of the
University of Chicago Law School The University of Chicago Law School is the law school of the University of Chicago, a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. It is consistently ranked among the best and most prestigious law schools in the world, and has many dis ...
. She was the third woman ever hired as a law professor at the University of Chicago and the only woman on the faculty when she began in 1981. Wood served as Professor of Law from 1989 to 1992, Associate Dean from 1990 to 1995, and (as the first woman to be honored with a named chair) the Harold J. and Marion F. Green Professor of International Legal Studies from 1992 to 1995. Since her appointment to the Seventh Circuit, she has continued to teach at the University of Chicago Law School as a Senior Lecturer in Law, along with fellow Seventh Circuit judges
Frank Easterbrook Frank Hoover Easterbrook (born September 3, 1948) is an American lawyer, jurist, and legal scholar who has served as a United States circuit judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit since 1985. He was the Seventh Circuit's chief ...
and
Richard Posner Richard Allen Posner (; born January 11, 1939) is an American jurist and legal scholar who served as a federal appellate judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit from 1981 to 2017. A senior lecturer at the University of Chic ...
. Wood was a special assistant to the
Assistant Attorney General Many of the divisions and offices of the United States Department of Justice are headed by an assistant attorney general. The president of the United States appoints individuals to the position of assistant attorney general with the advice and ...
at the
United States Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United Stat ...
from 1985 to 1987. From 1993 to 1995, she served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General for international, appellate, and policy in the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice. Wood is a member of the American Law Institute and sits on its Council. She is also a member of the
American Society of International Law The American Society of International Law (ASIL), founded in 1906, was chartered by the United States Congress in 1950 to foster the study of international law, and to promote the establishment and maintenance of international relations on the ba ...
, and a Fellow of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...
where she serves as Chair of the Council. A past member of the
American Bar Association The American Bar Association (ABA) is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. Founded in 1878, the ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of aca ...
, she has served on the governing councils of the ABA's Section of Antitrust Law and its Section of International Law and Practice. Wood has pursued various law reform projects through the American Bar Association and the Brookings Institution Project on Civil Justice Reform. She was also instrumental in developing the University of Chicago's first policy on sexual harassment. While still a full-time law school professor (before joining the Department of Justice and the Court of Appeals), she was a member of Planned Parenthood and the
National Organization for Women The National Organization for Women (NOW) is an American feminist organization. Founded in 1966, it is legally a 501(c)(4) social welfare organization. The organization consists of 550 chapters in all 50 U.S. states and in Washington, D.C. It ...
. In January 2021, the
University of Chicago Law School The University of Chicago Law School is the law school of the University of Chicago, a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. It is consistently ranked among the best and most prestigious law schools in the world, and has many dis ...
, where Wood teaches as a senior lecturer, announced that it would honor Wood for her 25th anniversary on the
United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (in case citations, 7th Cir.) is the U.S. federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the courts in the following districts: * Central District of Illinois * Northern District of ...
with a special edition of essays published by her colleagues in the ''
University of Chicago Law Review The ''University of Chicago Law Review'' (Maroonbook abbreviation: ''U Chi L Rev'') is the flagship law journal published by the University of Chicago Law School. It is among the top five most cited law reviews in the world. Up until 2020, it utili ...
''.


Federal judicial service

On March 31, 1995, President
Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...
nominated Wood to the
United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (in case citations, 7th Cir.) is the U.S. federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the courts in the following districts: * Central District of Illinois * Northern District of ...
after
William J. Bauer William Joseph Bauer (born September 15, 1926) is an inactive senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago and previously a United States district judge of the United States District ...
assumed
senior status Senior status is a form of semi- retirement for United States federal judges. To qualify, a judge in the federal court system must be at least 65 years old, and the sum of the judge's age and years of service as a federal judge must be at leas ...
. She was confirmed unanimously by the Senate and received her commission on June 30, 1995. Wood became the second woman ever to sit on the Seventh Circuit. She is known for building consensus on the court and rallying other judges around her positions. Neil A. Lewis has called Wood an "unflinching and spirited intellectual counterweight" to the Seventh Circuit's well-known conservative heavyweights
Richard Posner Richard Allen Posner (; born January 11, 1939) is an American jurist and legal scholar who served as a federal appellate judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit from 1981 to 2017. A senior lecturer at the University of Chic ...
and
Frank Easterbrook Frank Hoover Easterbrook (born September 3, 1948) is an American lawyer, jurist, and legal scholar who has served as a United States circuit judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit since 1985. He was the Seventh Circuit's chief ...
.Neil A. Lewis
"Potential Justice Offers a Counterpoint in Chicago
''The New York Times'' (May 11, 2009).
She served as Chief Judge from October 1, 2013, to July 3, 2020. On December 9, 2021, Wood announced she would assume senior status upon confirmation of her successor. She assumed
senior status Senior status is a form of semi- retirement for United States federal judges. To qualify, a judge in the federal court system must be at least 65 years old, and the sum of the judge's age and years of service as a federal judge must be at leas ...
on September 7, 2022. Wood was considered a likely candidate for the
United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
in the Obama administration. Speculation that she might be appointed intensified after
Justice Justice, in its broadest sense, is the principle that people receive that which they deserve, with the interpretation of what then constitutes "deserving" being impacted upon by numerous fields, with many differing viewpoints and perspective ...
David Souter David Hackett Souter ( ; born September 17, 1939) is an American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1990 until his retirement in 2009. Appointed by President George H. W. Bush to fill the seat ...
's retirement announcement, and Wood was the first candidate Obama interviewed for the post, meeting with her at the White House while she was visiting from Chicago. When Justice John Paul Stevens announced that he would retire at the end of October 2010 term, Wood's name was again widely put forward as a likely replacement.


Noteworthy rulings


LGBTQ Rights

*''Wetzel v. Glen St. Andrew Living Community''
No. 17-1322
(7th Cir. Aug. 27, 2018): A gay woman living in a senior-living facility was repeatedly abused by other tenants because of her sexual orientation. She complained about the abuse several times to management, but management refused to help her in any way. Wood first ruled that the Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and then ruled that a landlord may be held liable under the same act if it has knowledge of sexual-orientation harassment but fails to take any action to remedy it. *''Hively v. Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana''
Hively v. Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana No. 15-1720
(7th Cir. Apr. 4, 2017) (en banc): Wood wrote the majority opinion for the
en banc In law, an en banc session (; French for "in bench"; also known as ''in banc'', ''in banco'' or ''in bank'') is a session in which a case is heard before all the judges of a court (before the entire bench) rather than by one judge or a smaller p ...
court concluding that the prohibition on sex discrimination in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 encompasses discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. The plaintiff, Hively, alleged that Ivy Tech failed to promote her from an adjunct to a full-time professor because she was a lesbian. Wood's opinion reasoned that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation ''is'' discrimination on the basis of sex, because, according to Hively's allegations, if she were a ''man'' in a relationship with a woman, she would have been promoted to full-time status, but because she was a ''woman'' in a relationship with a woman, she was not promoted. In so ruling, the Seventh Circuit became the first federal court of appeals to find that Title VII forbids discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.


Separation of church and state

* : Wood wrote for the majority when it found that
Tony Evers Anthony Steven Evers (born November 5, 1951) is an American educator and politician serving as the 46th governor of Wisconsin since 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as Wisconsin's Superintendent of Public Instruction from 2009 ...
, then Superintendent of Public Instruction of Wisconsin, did not violate the Constitution's
Free Exercise Clause The Free Exercise Clause accompanies the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. The ''Establishment Clause'' and the ''Free Exercise Clause'' together read: Free exercise is the liberty of persons to re ...
nor its
Establishment Clause In United States law, the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, together with that Amendment's Free Exercise Clause, form the constitutional right of freedom of religion. The relevant constitutional text ...
when he denied bussing to an independent catholic school because there was a nearby archdiocesan school, over the dissent of Judge
Kenneth Francis Ripple Kenneth Francis Ripple (born May 19, 1943) is a Senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Education and career Ripple was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He received an Artium Baccalaure ...
. * ''Christian Legal Society v. Walker''

453 F.3d 853 (7th Cir. 2006) (dissenting): Christian Legal Society appealed after an Illinois district court denied their motion to enjoin
Southern Illinois University Southern Illinois University is a system of public universities in the southern region of the U.S. state of Illinois. Its headquarters is in Carbondale, Illinois. Board of trustees The university is governed by the nine member SIU Board of Tr ...
(SIU)
School of Law A law school (also known as a law centre or college of law) is an institution specializing in legal education, usually involved as part of a process for becoming a lawyer within a given jurisdiction. Law degrees Argentina In Argentina, l ...
to recognize a Christian student organization that required members to sign a statement of faith. The majority reversed, and Wood dissented, writing that the facts were insufficient to grant a preliminary injunction. Wood did not reach the merits of the case, her decision was purely procedural in nature. She wrote:
If, in the end, the facts show that
he university's He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...
nondiscrimination policy does not apply to student organizations, or that SIU is discriminating against CLS based upon its evangelical Christian viewpoint, the district court should certainly enjoin SIU from enforcing its policy.
She cited '' Lawrence v. Texas'' to support the proposition that a state may ban discrimination based on either status or conduct. In April 2010, the Supreme Court heard arguments in ''Christian Legal Society v. Martinez''
08-1371
(Apr. 19, 2010). A Supreme Court blogger opined that Justice Kennedy was concerned, that the record might not have developed enough to move forward. Judge Wood stated in her dissenting opinion in ''Christian Legal Society v. Walker'' that the record was insufficient to grant injunctive relief.


Immigration

* ''Bayo v. Napolitano''
593 F.3d 495
(7th Cir. 2010) (en banc): Wood wrote for a unanimous en banc court, holding that an alien's waiver of constitutional due process rights must be done knowingly and voluntarily and that the government may rely upon any valid ground to remove an alien illegally in the United States.


Fair Housing Act

* ''Bloch v. Frischholz''
533 F.3d 562
(7th Cir. 2008) (Wood, J., dissenting): An observant
Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
family affixed their
mezuzah A ''mezuzah'' ( he, מְזוּזָה "doorpost"; plural: ''mezuzot'') is a piece of parchment, known as a '' klaf'', contained in a decorative case and inscribed with specific Hebrew verses from the Torah ( and ). These verses consist of the ...
to the doorpost of their condominium. The condo association repeatedly removed the mezuzah, and the family sued, alleging violations of the Fair Housing Act. Wood argued there was sufficient evidence of intentional discrimination, but the majority of the panel disagreed. After the panel decision issued, the Seventh Circuit reheard the case ''en banc'' and unanimously reversed the panel majority. Wood's dissenting opinion, highly protective of the right to free exercise, became the unanimous opinion of the Seventh Circuit. ''Bloch v. Frischholz''
587 F.3d 771
(7th Cir. 2009). Two judges who initially opposed Wood's position joined the unanimous court.


1st amendment

* ''National Organization for Women v. Scheidler''
267 F.3d 687
(7th Cir. 2001) an
396 F.3d 807
(7th Cir. 2005); see also ''National Organization of Women v. Scheidler''
510 U.S. 249
(1994) (Supreme Court permits case to proceed under
Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act is a United States federal law that provides for extended criminal penalties and a civil cause of action for acts performed as part of an ongoing criminal organization. RICO was en ...
(RICO))
537 U.S. 393
(2003) (Supreme Court reverse
267 F.3d 687
construing extortion predicate to RICO violations)
547 U.S. 9
(2006) (Supreme Court holds that physical violence not covered under the
Hobbs Act The Hobbs Act, named after United States Representative Sam Hobbs ( D- AL) and codified at , is a United States federal law enacted in 1946 that provides: Section 1951 also proscribes conspiracy to commit robbery or extortion without refere ...
): Wood found that the district court did not err in concluding that RICO authorized private plaintiffs to seek an injunction. Wood recognized that:
Protection of politically controversial speech is at the core of the First Amendment, and no one disputes that the defendants' speech labeling abortion as murder, urging the clinics to get out of the abortion business, and urging clinics patients not to seek abortions is fully protected by the First Amendment.
However, Wood held that the injunction issued by the district court, which prohibited violent conduct by protesters, struck a proper balance and avoided any risk of curtailing activities protected by the First Amendment. * ''Goldwasser v. Ameritech Corp.''
222 F.3d 390
(7th Cir. 2000): Because the plaintiffs had alleged only that
Ameritech AT&T Teleholdings, Inc., formerly known as Ameritech Corporation (and before that American Information Technologies Corporation), is an American telecommunications company that arose out of the 1984 AT&T divestiture. Ameritech was one of the sev ...
violated the
Telecommunications Act of 1996 The Telecommunications Act of 1996 is a United States federal law enacted by the 104th United States Congress on January 3, 1996, and signed into law on February 8, 1996, by President Bill Clinton. It primarily amended Chapter 5 of Title 47 of ...
, Wood decided that they had not shown that the antitrust laws have been violated. The opinion defers to Congress's deregulation of the telecommunications market. Four years later, the position that Wood took in ''Goldwasser'' was approved by the Supreme Court in '' Verizon Communications v. Law Offices of Curtis V. Trinko LLP''
540 U.S. 398
(2004).


Abortion

On June 25, 2018, Wood wrote a concurrence in the denial of en banc after the 5th circuit blocked Indiana's fetal burial requirement and ban on disability-based abortion. Wood's concurrence was joined by
Ilana Rovner Ilana Kara Diamond Rovner (born August 21, 1938) is a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Rovner was the first woman appointed to the Seventh Circuit. She was previously a United States distr ...
and David Hamilton.


COVID-19 mandates

In early September 2020, Wood wrote the opinion in a ruling against the Illinois Republican Party's challenge against Governor
J. B. Pritzker Jay Robert "J. B." Pritzker (born January 19, 1965) is an American billionaire businessman, philanthropist, and politician serving as the 43rd governor of Illinois since 2019. A member of the wealthy Pritzker family, which owns the worldwide ...
's
COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...
orders.


Voting Rights

In ''League of Women Voters v. Sullivan'' (7th Cir. July 19, 2021), Wood wrote a unanimous ruling striking down an Indiana law allowing the state to purge voters without notifying the voter first. Wood was joined by Michael Brennan and Amy St. Eve, both of whom are Trump appointees.


Law reform work

Wood was elected to the American Law Institute in 1990 and was elected to the ALI Council in 2003. She is Chair of the ALI's Nominating Committee and an Adviser on two projects: the Restatement Fourth, The Foreign Relations Law of the United States project (Jurisdiction) and the Restatement Third, The Law of American Indians. She used to be an Adviser on the Principles of the Law of Aggregate Litigation project and the Transnational Rules of Civil Procedure project.


Writings

Wood has been called a "rock star of the written word" by ''
Mother Jones Mary G. Harris Jones (1837 (baptized) – November 30, 1930), known as Mother Jones from 1897 onwards, was an Irish-born American schoolteacher and dressmaker who became a prominent union organizer, community organizer, and activist. She h ...
''. She has written extensively in many areas of the law, and a full bibliography can be found at the University of Chicago Law Schoo
website
Some representative works include:
''The Changing Face of Diversity Jurisdiction''
82 Temp. L. Rev. 593 (2009) (initially given as the Arlin M. and Neysa Adams Lecture, October 2009). * ''Trade Regulation: Cases and Materials'', Casebook (with Robert Pitofsky & Harvey J. Goldschmid) (4th ed. 1997 to 6th ed. 2010). * ''The Bedrock of Individual Rights in Times of Natural Disaster'', 51 Howard L.J. 747 (2008). * ''Original Intent' Versus 'Evolution'', The Scrivener 7 (Summer 2005) (also published in Green Bag Almanac & Reader 267 (2007)). * ''Our 18th Century Constitution in the 21st Century World'', 80 N.Y.U. L. Rev. 1079 (2005). * ''Reflections on the Judicial Oath'', 8 Green Bag 2d 177 (2005). * ''The Rule of Law in Times of Stress'', 70 U. Chi. L. Rev. 455 (2003). * ''International Harmonization of Antitrust Law: The Tortoise or the Hare?'', 3 Chi. J. Int'l L. 391 (2002). * ''Sex Discrimination in Life and Law'', 1999 U. Chi. Legal F. 1. * ''Generalist Judges in a Specialized World'', 50 SMU L. Rev. 1755 (1997). * ''The Impossible Dream: Real International Antitrust'', 1992 U. Chi. Legal F. 277. * ''Unfair' Trade Injury: A Competition-Based Approach'', 41 Stan. L. Rev. 1153 (1989). * ''Class Actions: Joinder or Representational Device?'', 1983 S. Ct. Rev. 459.


Personal life

Wood is married to Robert L. Sufit, a professor of
neurology Neurology (from el, νεῦρον (neûron), "string, nerve" and the suffix -logia, "study of") is the branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the brain, the spinal ...
at
Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...
's
Feinberg School of Medicine Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine is the medical school of Northwestern University and is located in the Streeterville neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. Founded in 1859, Feinberg offers a full-time Doctor of Medicine degree p ...
, to whom she was introduced by her fellow Seventh Circuit Judge
Ilana Rovner Ilana Kara Diamond Rovner (born August 21, 1938) is a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Rovner was the first woman appointed to the Seventh Circuit. She was previously a United States distr ...
. She has six children, including three stepchildren, from her previous two marriages. She was married from 1978 to 1998 to Dennis J. Hutchinson, a professor at the
University of Chicago Law School The University of Chicago Law School is the law school of the University of Chicago, a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. It is consistently ranked among the best and most prestigious law schools in the world, and has many dis ...
. Wood married her first husband, Steve Van, while both were law students. She and Hutchinson, who became close friends during their time as law students in Texas, separated amicably and remain friends, colleagues and co-parents today. She plays
oboe The oboe ( ) is a type of double reed woodwind instrument. Oboes are usually made of wood, but may also be made of synthetic materials, such as plastic, resin, or hybrid composites. The most common oboe plays in the treble or soprano range. ...
and English horn in the North Shore Chamber Orchestra in Evanston,
Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockf ...
, in the
Chicago Bar Association Founded in 1874, the Chicago Bar Association (CBA) is a voluntary bar association with over 20,000 members. Like other bar associations, it concerns itself with professional ethics, networking among members, and continuing legal education. It is ...
Symphony Orchestra, and in the West Suburban Concert Band in LaGrange, Illinois. Wood lives in Hinsdale, Illinois, and is
Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...
.


See also

*
List of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States (Seat 2) Law clerks have assisted the justices of the United States Supreme Court in various capacities since the first one was hired by Justice Horace Gray in 1882. Each justice is permitted to have between three and four law clerks per Court term. Mo ...
*
Barack Obama Supreme Court candidates President Barack Obama made two successful appointments to the Supreme Court of the United States. The first was Judge Sonia SotomayorMark SilvaSonia Sotomayor is Obama's Supreme Court nominee ''Los Angeles Times'' (May 26, 2009). to fill the va ...
* ''
Hively v. Ivy Tech ''Kimberly Hively v. Ivy Tech Community College'', 853 F.3d 339 (7th Cir. 2017), was a decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in which the Court held that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation violates ...
''


References


External links

*
Photos of Judge Wood
at the University of Chicago
The Long, Clear, Inspiring Record of Diane Wood, by Glenn Greenwald, 4-19-2010
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wood, Diane Pamela 1950 births Living people 20th-century American judges 20th-century Protestants 20th-century American women judges 21st-century American judges 21st-century Protestants 21st-century American women judges American Protestants Georgetown University Law Center faculty Judges of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit Law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States Members of the American Law Institute People associated with Covington & Burling People from Hinsdale, Illinois People from Plainfield, New Jersey United States Assistant Attorneys General United States court of appeals judges appointed by Bill Clinton University of Chicago Law School faculty University of Texas School of Law alumni Women legal scholars