President Obama Names Victoria F. Nourse to U.S. Court of Appeals

WASHINGTON – Today, President Obama nominated Victoria F. Nourse to serve on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. 

“Throughout her career Victoria Nourse has shown a commitment to justice,” said President Obama. “I am proud to nominate her to serve on the United States Court of Appeals,”

Victoria F. Nourse:  Nominee for the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
Professor Victoria F. Nourse is the Burrus-Bascom Professor of Law at the University of Wisconsin School of Law, where she joined the faculty in 1993.  A prolific scholar with wide-ranging interests, Professor Nourse has written extensively on criminal law, legislation, constitutional history and the separation of powers.  She is also well-known for her role assisting then-Senator Joseph Biden in drafting the landmark Violence Against Women Act, part of the Biden-Hatch Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 . 

Professor Nourse began her career as a law clerk to Judge Edward Weinfeld of the Southern District of New York.  From 1985 to 1987, she worked at the New York office of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison as a litigation associate.  In 1987, she was asked to serve as an assistant counsel to the Senate Committee to Investigate the Iran-Contra Affair.  When the investigation concluded in 1988, she joined the Civil Appellate Staff of the U.S. Department of Justice, where she represented federal agencies in the U.S. Courts of Appeal.  In 1990, she became Special Counsel to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, where she was chief lawyer advising on crime and drug laws ultimately enacted as the Biden-Hatch Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994.  In the fall of 1993, Professor Nourse accepted a position as Assistant Professor at University of Wisconsin Law School in Madison and has remained on the Wisconsin faculty since that time.  In 2008, she became the LQC Lamar Professor of Law at Emory University Law School, a position she held concurrently with her Wisconsin chair until earlier this year.  She also has held visiting professorships at University of Maryland School of Law, Yale Law School, New York University School of Law, and Georgetown University Law Center.

Professor Nourse received her B.A. in 1980 from Stanford University, where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa, and her J.D. in 1984 from the University of California, Boalt Hall School of Law, where she graduated Order of the Coif.