Big news for both the federal bench and legal academia: Chief Judge David F. Levi, of the Eastern District of California, has been picked as the next dean of Duke Law School.

If approved by the trustees, Levi will replace Dean Katharine Bartlett on July 1. Here's the official press release.*

Chief Judge David Levi is one of the most highly-regarded district judges in the entire federal judiciary -- and this should come as no surprise, given his pedigree. The 55-year-old judge is a Harvard College and Stanford Law grad, former Ninth Circuit clerk, and member of the Elect (OT 1982/Powell).

Legal genius runs in the Levi family. David Levi is the son of the late Edward Levi, former Attorney General under President Ford (and recently in the news in the wake of President Ford's passing; he recommended Justice Stevens for the SCOTUS). As the WSJ Law Blog points out, David Levi's older brother is also a high-powered lawyer: John Levi, a partner at Sidley & Austin.

When we clerked on the Ninth Circuit, we worked on an appeal from a decision of then-Judge Levi (he became Chief Judge in 2003). It was a bizarre an interesting case involving a transsexual ex-prison inmate, one Torey Tuesday South, who filed a civil action against California prison officials. She alleged that the officials improperly cut off her sex hormones (which she had been taking since she was a teenage boy). The officials asserted qualified immunity.

The record on appeal was really weird highly unusual. It included quasi-soft-porn photographs of Torey Tuesday South in various unusual positions, designed to showcase certain parts of her anatomy. It also included materials that gave us a crash course in gender dysphoria.

We'll spare you the details; if you're curious, you can look up the decision on Westlaw. In the end, Chief Judge Levi's decision to allow the case to move forward was affirmed. The factual findings and legal reasoning he provided in support of his ruling were impeccable.

In his new role as dean of Duke Law School, David Levi will surely grapple once again with issues of transsexuality. But the questions presented will be less thorny. For example: Can transexuals use both the male and female bathrooms in the law school (as they can in the New York subway)?

The Duke deanship is an exciting new opportunity for one of our nation's most distinguished jurists. Congratulations, Your Honor!

Food for thought: Professor Orin Kerr wonders: Is Chief Judge Levi, regarded by both liberals and conservatives as a fair and thoughtful jurist, the kind of Supreme Court nominee who could win over Democratic senators?

David Levi is only 55 years old. He's a moderate conservative with 16 years of judicial experience, as well as a civil procedure guru. Now he's adding another feather to his cap: the deanship of a prestigious law school. If he steers clear of controversy as dean, he's certainly a SCOTUS possibility.

* From the Duke alum who sent us the press release: "I can speak for many of my fellow Duke Law alums when I say good riddance to the former dean, Kate Bartlett."

Update: Some Duke alumni dissent from this assessment of Dean Bartlett. For further discussion, see the comments.

Federal Judge David F. Levi selected as Dean of Duke Law School [Duke Law School]
Duke Law School Selects Judge David Levi as Dean [WSJ Law Blog]
Wonderful news for Duke Law School, but a sad loss of a very talented judge [How Appealing]
David F. Levi bio [FJC]
Ex-Inmate's Suit Advances [Sacramento Bee]
Transsexual inmate mistreated, court says [Sacramento Bee]
More on 100-0 Nominees [Volokh Conspiracy]