Victoria Frances Nourse (born November 9, 1958) is a Ralph V. Whitworth Professor of Law at the

Georgetown University Law Center The Georgetown University Law Center (Georgetown Law) is the law school of Georgetown University, a private research university in Washington, D.C. It was established in 1870 and is the largest law school in the United States by enrollment and ...

and the executive director of the Center on Congressional Studies at

Georgetown Law The Georgetown University Law Center (Georgetown Law) is the law school of Georgetown University, a private research university in Washington, D.C. It was established in 1870 and is the largest law school in the United States by enrollment a ...

. A nominee for 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 Il ...

, pursuant to the rules of the Senate, her nomination was returned to the president on December 17, 2011, after the Senate adjourned for more than 30 days. Her nomination was not resubmitted by the president. From 2014 to 2015, she served as counsel to Vice President Joe Biden.

Early life and education

Nourse was born in

Dunedin, Florida Dunedin is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. The name comes from ''Dùn Èideann'', the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Dunedin is part of the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater metropolitan area and is ...

and received her

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

from

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

in 1980 and later received a

Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice law ...

from the University of California, Boalt Hall School of Law in 1984.

Career

After graduating from law school, Nourse clerked for

Edward Weinfeld Edward Weinfeld (May 14, 1901 – January 17, 1988) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Education and career Born on May 14, 1901, in New York City, New York, Weinfeld r ...

of the

United States District Court for the Southern District of New York The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (in case citations, S.D.N.Y.) is a United States district court, federal trial court whose geographic jurisdiction encompasses eight counties of New York (state), New York ...

in 1984 and 1985. From 1985 to 1987 and during the winter of 1988, she worked in for the law firm of

Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP (known as Paul, Weiss) is an American multinational law firm headquartered on Sixth Avenue in New York City. By profits per equity partner, it is the fifth most profitable law firm in the world. ...

. In 1987 she worked as an assistant counsel on the United States Senate Committee to Investigate the Iran-Contra Affair. During 1988 to 1990, Nourse was an appellate attorney with 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 State ...

working in the civil division. From 1990 to 1993, she worked as counsel and special counsel for the

United States Senate Judiciary Committee The United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, informally the Senate Judiciary Committee, is a standing committee of 22 U.S. senators whose role is to oversee the Department of Justice (DOJ), consider executive and judicial nominations, ...

and was heavily involved in writing the

Violence Against Women Act The Violence Against Women Act of 1994 (VAWA) is a United States federal law (Title IV of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, ) signed by President Bill Clinton on September 13, 1994. The Act provided $1.6 billion toward investi ...

(VAWA). She did this work under then-Senator Joe Biden. This generated national controversy when Biden attempted to claim he was the author of VAWA. Her historic battle to uphold VAWA is documented in many books, including "Equal: Women Reshape American Law" By Fred Strebeigh. In this book she was included alongside

Supreme Court Justice The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest-ranking judicial body in the United States. Its membership, as set by the Judiciary Act of 1869, consists of the chief justice of the United States and eight Associate Justice of the Supreme ...

Ruth Bader Ginsburg Joan Ruth Bader Ginsburg ( ; ; March 15, 1933September 18, 2020) was an American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1993 until her death in 2020. She was nominated by President ...

as a woman who had a history-changing effect on the law.Rutgers University Symposium on "Equal" by Fred Strebeigh
/ref> From 1996 to 1997, Nourse was a visiting professor of law at the

University of Maryland School of Law The University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law (formerly University of Maryland School of Law) is the law school of the University of Maryland, Baltimore and is located in Baltimore City, Maryland, U.S. Its location places Maryland ...

. From 1997 to 2002, Nourse was an Associate Professor of Law at the

University of Wisconsin Law School The University of Wisconsin Law School is the professional graduate law school of the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Located in Madison, Wisconsin, the school was founded in 1868. The University of Wisconsin Law School is guided by a "law in ...

During the fall semester of 2002, she was a visiting professor of law at

Yale Law School Yale Law School (Yale Law or YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824 and has been ranked as the best law school in the United States by ''U ...

and taught law at

New York University School of Law New York University School of Law (NYU Law) is the law school of New York University, a private research university in New York City. Established in 1835, it is the oldest law school in New York City and the oldest surviving law school in New ...

in the spring of 2003. Nourse returned to the

from 2005 until 2008 as the Burrus-Bascom Professorship. From 2008 to 2010, Nourse was the LQC Lamar Professor of Law at

Emory University School of Law Emory University School of Law is the law school of Emory University and is part of the University's main campus in Druid Hills, Atlanta, Georgia. It was founded in 1916 and was the first law school in Georgia to be granted membership in the Am ...

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

. In February 2019, Nourse was installed as the inaugural Ralph V. Whitworth Professor of Law and the

Consideration for Seventh Circuit

On January 22, 2010, United States Senators

Herb Kohl Herbert H. Kohl (born February 7, 1935) is an American businessman and politician. Alongside his brother and father, the Kohl family created the Kohl's department stores chain, of which Kohl went on to be president and CEO. Kohl also served as a ...

and

Russ Feingold Russell Dana Feingold ( ; born March 2, 1953) is an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States Senator from Wisconsin from 1993 to 2011. A member of the Democratic Party, he was its nominee in the 2016 election for the same U ...

forwarded four names to the

Obama White House Barack Obama's tenure as the 44th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 2009, and ended on January 20, 2017. A Democrat from Illinois, Obama took office following a decisive victory over Republican n ...

for consideration to fill the vacancy on the

Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals 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 ...

created when Judge Terence T. Evans assumed

senior status Senior status is a form of semi-retirement for United States federal judges. To qualify, a judge in the Federal judiciary of the United States, federal court system must be at least 65 years old, and the sum of the judge's age and years of servi ...

.Adam Korbitz
Kohl, Feingold forward four names to President Obama for Seventh Circuit
''State Bar of Wisconsin'' (January 25, 2010). Retrieved November 24, 2019. Nourse was recommended along with District Court Judge Lynn Adelman, Richard Sankovitz, and Dean Strang. On July 14, 2010, Obama nominated Nourse to the vacancy. Her nomination was returned to the President on December 17, 2011, pursuant to the rules of the Senate.

Personal

Nourse is the daughter-in-law of United States federal judge Richard D. Cudahy who was a Judge of the

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nourse, Victoria 1958 births Living people 20th-century American women lawyers 20th-century American lawyers 21st-century American women lawyers 21st-century American lawyers Emory University faculty Georgetown University Law Center faculty Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison people People from Dunedin, Florida Stanford University alumni UC Berkeley School of Law alumni University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty

Early life and education

Career

Consideration for Seventh Circuit

Personal

See also

References