udge David Levi has been a rising star on the U.S. Eastern District Court ever since he was appointed to the bench in 1990 by President George Bush. Now that George W. Bush is president, people who know Levi say his star may soon burn a lot brighter.
The 50-year-old Levi is said to be on the short list to be Bush's solicitor general, although that job is likely to go to Ted Olson, the Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher partner who successfully argued Bush's election case before the U.S. Supreme Court. A more probable scenario, local judges say, is that Levi will be tapped for the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which currently has three vacancies.
Levi was in trial and couldn't be reached, but it's not surprising that the former U.S. attorney and U.S. Supreme Court clerk may be on the way up yet again. A well-connected Republican and a graduate of Stanford Law School, Levi is the son of Edward Levi, a Chicago law professor and U.S. attorney general under Gerald Ford.
David Levi prosecuted drug and white collar crimes and investigated public corruption in the California Legislature before taking the bench a decade ago. He since has handled high-profile cases of statewide importance. Levi has also proven himself a conservative and has shown the ability to garner the respect of judges on higher courts.
For instance, Levi gave the go-ahead for Gov. Pete Wilson's campaign to dismantle affirmative action programs in California, paving the way for Wilson to sue state agencies that maintained preference policies.
In probably his most famous case, California Democratic Party v. Bill Jones, 169 F.3d 646, Levi upheld California's Proposition 198, which passed in 1996 and created a blanket primary system in which voters could cast ballots regardless of party affiliation.
Supporters of the initiative hoped to break the hold of parties over the political process and increase voter turnout, while opponents of the law said it was a violation of their First Amendment rights and would lead to political mischief. Weighing the two arguments, Levi wrote that the parties' "interests were significant," but "the state's interests that support the blanket primary are substantial, indeed compelling."
"In reaching this decision, the court does not decide whether a blanket primary is a good idea; it may prove to be a bad idea, in which case the people of the state presumably will act to reform the system," he wrote.
Levi's ruling was considered a rare victory for California voters at the time because numerous statewide initiatives had met adverse verdicts in district courts around the state. A three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit later affirmed that ruling, calling Levi's 50-page opinion eloquent and legally sound and adopting most of it as their own. But the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately overturned the decision on the grounds that the blanket primary system violated the First Amendment rights of the political parties.
A Levi opinion that fared better before the nation's highest court was 1999's Saenz v. Roe, 134 F.3d 646, which struck down California's two-tier welfare benefit system for newcomers.
In his majority opinion, U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens affirmed Levi's decision and even cited him by name as the author of the original opinion, a rare thing in Supreme Court opinions.
George Waters, a partner at Sacramento's Olson Hagel Leidigh Waters & Fishburn and the attorney who argued on behalf of the Democratic Party in the case, said although Levi ruled against him, the analysis in Levi's opinion was "well crafted and thoughtful."
"I thought the opinion was very reasoned," Waters said. The attorney added that Levi is a good judge to have overseeing a trial and very difficult to criticize. Not only is Levi accommodating to all the parties involved in a trial, he said, but Levi is very smart. "He's a quick study," Waters said. He added that would make a very good appellate judge, both for his strong writing skills and his knowledge of the law.
Although Bush has made it clear that he wants to appoint strict constructionists to the federal bench, Waters doesn't view Levi as being overly conservative. "He's conservative in a classic, philosophical way," he said. "I don't have the impression he would stray too far."
Third District Court of Appeal Presiding Justice Arthur Scotland described Levi as an exceptional talent with a mix of common sense and courage. "He's everything that you would want in a judicial officer," he said.
Scotland said Levi is highly respected and would do well either on the 9th Circuit or as solicitor general. "I'd like to see him solicitor general," he said.
