As an undergraduate at UM, Jordan was a walk-on with the Hurricanes baseball team. He would joke to friends that he played “left bench.”Relatives, friends and peers always described “Bert” Jordan as “scary smart,” a whiz kid.
He excelled as a political science major before finishing second in his UM law-school class. He earned a spot on the Law Review. One of his articles was on the use in legal filings of sports metaphors, entitled “Imagery, Humor and Judicial Opinion,’’ which “simply celebrates the prankster and poet in all of us.”
In 1987, Jordan applied to all nine U.S. Supreme Court justices for a clerkship. O’Connor granted him an interview. She picked him and three others from a field of 10.
But before he went to Washington, Jordan spent a year working for 11th Circuit Judge Thomas Clark in Atlanta.
Back then, he told The Miami Herald that he was following an “unwritten rule” that says clerking for a federal judge is a prerequisite for a Supreme Court clerkship. Quipped Jordan: It applies to “anyone who’s not at Harvard or Yale.”
And the Palm Beach Post rightfully calls for Obama to get this done quickly:
There is no need for such delay over Judge Jordan, an American success story. He came to the U.S. from Cuba as a 6-year-old with his parents. After receiving his bachelor's and law degrees with honors from the University of Miami, he clerked for former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, worked in private practice and served as a federal prosecutor before becoming a judge at only 38.
Normally, when senators from both states agree on a judicial nominee, he or she is confirmed without controversy. Sen. Marco Rubio, a Republican, would be the one to raise any opposition. According to his press aide, though, Sen. Rubio "has heard nothing but positive things about Judge Jordan, and he looks forward to presenting his nomination before the Judiciary Committee for its consideration." The Senate confirmed Judge Jordan 93-1 in 1999. The result now should be about the same.
