Cassell nominated as a top legal thinker

He's already known in Utah legal circles for being out front on many hot-button issues, but now it appears U.S. District Judge Paul Cassell is also making a name for himself outside the Beehive State.

Cassell is one of 125 nominees for Legal Affairs magazine's "Top 20 Legal Thinkers in America," a search for "the country's most influential and important legal thinkers — the ones whose ideas are pushing the law forward (or backward, as the case may be)."

The unscientific poll is a first for the magazine, published by Yale University Law School, and is meant to get people talking, said Emily Bazelon, a senior editor at Legal Affairs.

"It is mostly for fun, to get people thinking," Bazelon said. "We were hoping to spark a conversation."

Nominees are listed on the magazine's Web site in three categories — academics, judges and writers/commentators — and Cassell is one of the few district court judges included on the list. Lower court judges aren't in a position to wield as much influence as appeals court judges, but Bazelon said Cassell's work over the past two years has made him stand out from the crowd.

"Judge Cassell is someone who has really taken very bold stances on various issues," she said.

The Utah judge joins a number of well-known legal minds, including every sitting U.S. Supreme Court justice, 10th Circuit judges David Ebel and Paul J. Kelly Jr., Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, New York Times reporter Adam Liptak and NPR legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg.

Law clerk Tim Conde said Cassell was honored to learn he was included among such a prestigious list, including Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, for whom Cassell clerked 20 years ago.

Members of Cassell's chambers couldn't be more pleased with the nomination, Conde said.

"I think it's well deserving, and I think it reflects on what he's done both in academics and in his acts as a judge in the federal court," he said. "When he sees an issue that needs to be addressed, he doesn't shy away from addressing it."

Cassell, 45 — 42 when his nomination was confirmed — is the youngest federal court judge in Utah history. He has taken controversial positions on many topics, such as the constitutionality of federal sentencing guidelines and mandatory-minimum sentences, and the Fourth Amendment rights of undocumented immigrants. Before taking the bench in July 2002, the University of Utah law professor lobbied against mandatory Miranda rights and in favor of victims' rights.