Mildred Lillie

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Mildred Lillie (January 25, 1915 – October 27, 2002) was a California judge whom President Richard Nixon seriously considered for the Supreme Court of the United States in 1971. Lillie's potential candidacy for the high court was ended by an "unqualified" rating from the American Bar Association.

Lillie obtained her undergraduate and law degrees from the University of California. She served as an Assistant United States Attorney from 1942 through 1946 and then entered the private practice of law for about two years until Republican Governor Earl Warren appointed her to the Los Angeles Municipal Court in 1947. She was next appointed to Los Angeles County Superior Court in 1949. In 1958 Lillie, a Democrat, was appointed to the Second District Court of Appeal by Republican Governor Goodwin Knight.

In 1969 President Richard Nixon nominated Clement Haynsworth for a vacancy on the United States Supreme Court created by the resignation of Abe Fortas. Haynesworth was rejected by the United States Senate. In 1970 Nixon nominated G. Harrold Carswell, who also was rejected by the Senate. Nixon then nominated Harry Blackmun, who was confirmed.

Nixon was shortly afterward faced with two vacancies on the high bench due to the retirements of John Marshall Harlan and Hugo Black in 1971.

In spite of the rejections of Haynesworth and Carswell, Nixon announced that he would nominate Lillie and Hershel Friday to the high bench. Neither was well-regarded. Friday was a former member of the American Bar Association Board of Delegates; Lillie was then a little-known judge on an intermediate state appellate court in California. After the ABA reported both Friday and Lillie as unqualified, Nixon nominated Lewis Powell and William H. Rehnquist for the vacancies instead, and both were confirmed.

Lillie remained on the Second District Court of Appeal long after the Supreme Court episode, and remained on the bench until her death in 2002 at the age of 87. Sandra Day O'Connor later became the first female Supreme Court Justice.

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