I continued reading through Judge Stinson’s bio. I wasn’t surprised to see that she was Order of the Coif — which has nothing to do with hair. It’s a national honor society, like Phi Beta Kappa, but for law students. The other accolades were more recent, recognizing her work as a litigator at the O’Melveny law firm or her work as a judge. Most judges have a passel of awards — shockingly, lawyers love to bestow honors upon judges — but Stinson’s list of accolades was longer than most, especially considering her relatively young age.
Next up: a listing of her noteworthy rulings. In a number of cases, Stinson took a position — sometimes in dissent, disagreeing with her fellow judges — that was then vindicated by the Supreme Court. She could be described as fairly pro-defendant in civil cases and somewhat pro-government in criminal cases.
Among the cases, this one jumped out at me: