Leah Ward Sears Former Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears is reported to be on President Obama's short list of nominees to be the next Supreme Court justice. Sears retired from her Georgia court position last year and now practices law for a private firm. The vacancy came about with the announcement by Justice John Paul Stevens that he would be retiring from the U.S. Supreme Court.

The White House has said it plans to name a nominee by early next month.

She was the first African American woman to serve as chief justice in a U.S. court and, with her nomination by Georgia Gov. Zell Miller in 1992, became the first woman and the youngest person to ever sit on the Georgia Supreme Court.

Sears was raised in Savannah, and educated in the Chatham County school system, graduating from Beach High School. Sears received a Bachelor of Science from Cornell University in 1976, her Juris Doctor from Emory University School of Law in 1980, and a Master of Laws from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1995.

Sears was appointed by then-Mayor Andrew Young to the City of Atlanta Traffic Court in 1985. She then became a Superior Court judge in 1988 (the first African-American woman to hold that position in the state). She became a state Supreme Court justice in 1992.

Although historically a non-partisan election, the Georgia Republican Party and Georgia Christian Coalition targeted Sears for defeat in 2004. She defeated her challenger with 62 percent of the vote.

Sears currently lives in Atlanta, Georgia with her husband Haskell Ward, former Deputy Mayor of New York City under Mayor Ed Koch. She is the mother of Addison Sears-Collins and Brennan Sears-Collins.

Others said to be considered include Deval Patrick, current governor of Massachusetts, Janet Napolitano, current Homeland Security Director, Harold Hongju Koh, Legal Adviser to the State Department, Elena Kagan, U.S. Solicitor General, Jennifer Granholm, current Governor of Michigan and Merrick B. Garland, current Judge on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.