Diane Wood, Consensus-Builder

The New York Times depicts Judge Diane Wood as a liberal who can get along with, and sway, conservatives in a mini-profile today, focusing on the relationships she's forged with two prominent conservatives, fellow Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals judges Richard Posner and Frank Easterbrook.

Wood figures to rank among the frontrunners as President Obama deliberates over his next Supreme Court nomination, to replace Justice John Paul Stevens, a decision he plans to make by the end of May.

The former law professor at the University of Chicago (where Obama himself lectured on constitutional law) has maintained a friendly relationship with Posner and Easterbrook, the Times reports, and she's described as someone who works with conservatives in a productive, consensus-building way--holding onto her own views while looking for common ground, able to withstand the controlled aggression of the judicial community and earn the respect of conservatives, while swaying their opinions in some important moments. (This, coincidentally, is something Obama is expected to look for in his nominee: someone who can work with, and sway, the conservatives on the Roberts court.)

Some conservatives, meanwhile, have portrayed her as a left-wing extremist, and plenty of activists on the right will be unhappy if Obama chooses her in the end.

For instance, the conservative Judicial Confirmation Network produced a series of videos attacking purported SCOTUS short-listers last year, before Obama announced Sonia Sotomayor as his nominee. Here's the video JCN produced on Diane Wood; judging from this depiction, it seems that if Wood is nominated, opposition would be fierce in some political corners: