Talk:Albert Levitt

Notability

As I've explained at User_talk:Wehwalt#Albert Levitt, I truly doubt that Levitt is notable under WP:N, WP:BIO, or (to the extent he was a professor) WP:ACADEMIC. Nevertheless, as I've said before, I'm skeptical that articles that have existed for less than a reasonable period of time--at least a month--should be taken to AFD if there is even the faintest glimmer of a claim to notability. Far better to take WP:FAILN's advice: put the {{notability}} tag on the article and see what happens for a while. I have done so.- Simon Dodd { U·T·C·WP:LAW } 22:54, 4 August 2009 (UTC)

That's fine. But how is a Federal Judge not notable? See WP:POLITICIAN, the part about judges. I'm going to keep writing though.--Wehwalt (talk) 22:59, 4 August 2009 (UTC)

Even if Levitt fits into WP:POLITICIAN, and I'm not sure he does, that doesn't help you out, because it's expressly permissive: "meeting one or more [of its criteria] does not guarantee that a subject should be included." As to federal judges, as I explained on your talk page, he wasn't a federal judge as we ordinarily understand that term. When one thinks of federal judges, one has in mind judges of article III courts, but Levitt was the judge of the District Court of the Virgin Islands, an Article I court. That's why FJC has no bio for him. Are we to think that every person who has ever held a commission for other Article I courts like the Merit System Protection, Patent Appeals, or Immigration Appeals boards -- who are just as much vel non "federal judges" as was Levitt -- is notable simply by the fact of their nomination and confirmation? I don't think so. - Simon Dodd { U·T·C·WP:LAW } 23:25, 4 August 2009 (UTC)

It's also worth noting that if WP:POLITICIAN supplies Levitt with notability as a former judge of the District Court of the Virgin Islands, it must also confer notability on at least Curtis Gomez and Raymond Finch (that court's present judges), and probably George W. Cannon and Geoffrey W. Barnard (that court's present magistrate judges), to say nothing of the lord-knows-how-many former judges that court has seen. Yet those are all redlinks - what gives?- Simon Dodd { U·T·C·WP:LAW } 23:34, 4 August 2009 (UTC)

There's a considerable NY Times obit. He was 3 times special assistant attorney general, did a major part of the work of the codification of the naturalization laws in the 20s and wrote a book on the subject, NY Times did a decent obit on him, if you run a news search, he was covered fairly extensively.--Wehwalt (talk) 23:56, 4 August 2009 (UTC)

I also think he is notable. He gave his name to Ex parte Levitt, which is a notable precedent, and reader will be interested to know who he was. Also agree with Welwalt that there is extensive coverage in third party reliable sources about him. Ruslik_Zero 08:20, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

Harvard and the ERA

This section assumes prior knowledge on the part of the reader. Who is 'Paul' and what is the 'ERA'? Neither are linked or explained in the article. Dalliance (talk) 12:13, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

Ah so. I'll correct that. Thanks.--Wehwalt (talk) 12:47, 14 August 2009 (UTC)