Several days after Supreme Court Justice David Souter announced that he would resign after the current term ends in June, The New York Times named Stanford Law School professor Pamela Karlan ’80 LAW ’84 a top contender to replace Souter. Karlan, an expert on constitutional law, is openly gay.

Currently, the Supreme Court features seven white men, one black man and one white woman. None of the current nine justices is gay. Besides Karlan, other possible Eli nominees include Yale Law School Dean Harold Hongju Koh, who is awaiting confirmation to become legal adviser to the Department of State, and Judge Sonia Sotomayor LAW ’79 of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, both of whom we commented on in a post last week.