Judge Michael McConnell has accomplished the seemingly impossible: His lengthy record as a jurist and scholar has won him the admiration of both conservative Christians and liberal academics.
Conservatives admire McConnell's views on religion and government; he's been a vigorous opponent of abortion and a staunch supporter of school vouchers. Some liberals applaud McConnell's opposition to the Clinton impeachment and the Bush v. Gore decision in 2000; McConnell is also against a constitutional amendment banning flag burning. More than 300 law professors signed a letter of support when McConnell was appointed to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, which is based in Denver (though McConnell actually lives in Salt Lake City). The letter from the professors said that while they didn't always agree with McConnell's rulings, his "thoroughness and fairness to opposing viewpoints" make him an outstanding judge.
Some of those academics may not be so eager to support his elevation to the nation's highest court, but their respect for his judicial temperament and intellectual capacity speaks to his reputation in the legal world.
"He's on the short list because he's very, very smart and analytical without being an ideologue," says Cass Sunstein, a professor and former colleague at the University of Chicago Law School. "Those of us who are worried about judicial hubris in the name of the Constitution do not have much to fear from him."
McConnell graduated from Michigan State University in 1976 and attended the University of Chicago Law School. Prof. Geoffrey Stone says that even as a student, McConnell possessed an uncommonly astute legal mind. Stone was so impressed that he called Supreme Court Justice William Brennan to help secure a clerkship for McConnell.
"I thought clerking for Justice Brennan might temper some of his conservative convictions," he says. "It didn't work."
McConnell served for a time as an assistant solicitor general in the Reagan Justice Department and then turned to academia for 17 years, first at the University of Chicago Law School and later at the University of Utah's law school. He is regarded as one of the country's foremost scholars on the religion clauses of the Constitution. Friends say the soft-spoken McConnell has a wry sense of humor and enjoys hiking and camping.
Religion and the law have been a focal point of his career as well as the subject of numerous writings and law-review articles. One of his central beliefs is that the rigid separation between church and state, which he says exists today, is a misreading of American history and jurisprudence. He criticized a 1983 Supreme Court ruling that revoked Bob Jones University's tax-exempt status because of the school's ban on interracial dating. McConnell argued that it infringed on the school's freedom of speech and freedom of religion. In 2000, he helped defend the right of the Boy Scouts to exclude homosexual scoutmasters from the organization and argued successfully before the high court that public money at the University of Virginia could be directed to religious publications.
McConnell is also an outspoken opponent of abortion. In 1998, he wrote in the Wall Street Journal that "the reasoning of Roe v. Wade is an embarrassment to those who take constitutional law seriously." And in 1996, he signed a statement endorsing a constitutional amendment banning the practice; he has also supported abortion opponents who block access to family-planning clinics.
