Supreme Courtiers

With the retirement of Justice Souter, a liberal in conservative clothing, Obama has his first chance to make a nomination to the high court. As expected his probable nomination will be less about ability and more about Group Identity. So far all of the listed potential nominees have been from Identity Groups of the left persuasion. All on his short list will be from minority groups that helped get him elected. All will certainly be even to the left of Souter, if that is possible and all will be from the Identity Groups that believe that equal outcome trumps equal opportunity.

"We need somebody who's got the heart to recognize -- the empathy to recognize what it's like to be a young teenaged mom, the empathy to understand what it's like to be poor or African-American or gay or disabled or old, and that's the criteria by which I'm going to be selecting my judges." Obama 2007

One has to ask what "empathy" has to do with law or justice for that matter. Once upon a time we believed that justice was blind - now we believe that justice is about Group Identity and touchy, feely emotions like empathy.

It is kind of sad that we no longer consider judges for their judicial experience and abilities but instead judge them on how they will vote on certain liberal social issues, abortion, gay marriage, etc. Justices Roberts and Alia were eminently qualified for the bench not because of their personal likes or dislikes regarding social issues but because of their judicial abilities. There should never be a litmus test for being a Supreme Court justice and potential candidates should never be asked questions about where they stand on abortion or gay marriage, but on how they view the law and its place in society. We already know how any Obama nominee will vote and because of the make up of the senate there is no chance that an Obamanee will not be passed. Heck, I think if a trained monkey were nominated it would pass the current senate because Reid won't go against his hero in the White House. I am not up on the qualifcations of the justices on the Obama's short list but I can say that I don't see any of them upholding the Constitution if there is a potential that someone's feeling could get hurt. It will be the first time in ages that a nominee will not have to go through much scrutiny to make it to the high court.

Over on the Wall Street Journal is a pretty good column on potential Souter replacements: Succeeding Souter.

At least for right now the decision count of the court isn't going to change. But Justice Stevens is getting pretty old!!

Remember, we are a Nation of Laws not empathy.