Gov. Bill Owens has appointed Allison Eid, the wife of his former legal counsel Troy Eid, to the Colorado Supreme Court. She will replace retiring Justice Rebecca Love Kourlis Not surprisingly, Ms. Eid is a conservative.

Eid, a conservative who was a clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, serves as chief legal officer for state Attorney General John Suthers and is on leave from her teaching post at the University of Colorado School of Law. Owens, an opponent of "activist judges," said Eid's lack of a judicial track record was not a problem. He said he was looking for a justice who would not try to write the law, and her numerous legal publications on tort law and federalism convinced him of her conservative credentials.

She also served as a speechwriter to William Bennett when he was U.S. Secretary of Education. Owens pledged to appoint a conservative to the court, and he lived up to his word.