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The Supremes
Issue Three: The Supremes.
PRESIDENT-ELECT OBAMA: (From videotape.) I will look for those judges who have an outstanding judicial record, who have the intellect, and who hopefully have a sense of what real-world folks are going through.
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: The Supreme Court is just what its name suggests -- supreme -- supreme over all the other 16,000 judicial bodies in the United States. The court's nine justices interpret law and they set precedent for years to come. The nomination of these justices is by the president, and it is arguably his or her most enduring power.
These justices commonly outlive the nominating president's terms. All nine of them serve for life, if they so wish. Thirty-two percent resign or retire. As a consequence of lengthy service, the justices' age can be quite seasoned. In the current court, one of the nine is an octogenarian, John Paul Stevens. Three of the nine are in their seventies -- Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Antonin Scalia and Anthony Kennedy.
Question: Why will it be easier for President-elect Obama to assess nominees' judicial philosophy than for other presidents who have done so, or to do so? Do you understand the question?
MR. BUCHANAN: Sure.
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: Do you understand the question, Eleanor?
MS. CLIFT: I can guess at it. (Laughs.)
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: Why is it going to be easier for Obama?
MS. CLIFT: Because he's thoughtful and he's a former constitutional lawyer.
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: There you go. MS. CLIFT: And he understands that he needs to keep a balance on the court, which is now evenly split between left and right, with one swing vote, and the three most likely justices to retire are on the left. And so he needs -- the best he can do, from my perspective, is to keep the court where it is and not let the right take over.
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: He's a lawyer. And in addition to that, he taught constitutional law for many years, did he not?
MR. PAGE: At the University of Chicago, one of those incubators for justices.
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: The University of Chicago. So he also knows what questions to ask the interviewee in order to discover what his judicial philosophy is --
MR. BUCHANAN: Let me say, John --
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: -- or hers, correct?
MS. CROWLEY: Well, that's right. He does have the background. But let's be honest. I mean, when the country elects a president, they elect a political philosophy. So he's not going to appoint conservative judges, and that's his prerogative not to. We're looking at between one and three vacancies, possibly, starting with John Paul Stevens, who's about 89 years old. There are others. Ruth Bader Ginsburg --
MS. CLIFT: Eighty-seven, I think.
MS. CROWLEY: -- is not in the best of health, and so she might retire as well. So there will be vacancies here for him. And he has made it clear that he wants somebody who is going to be able to reflect his political philosophy and approach the law that way as well.
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: Okay, more on the Supreme Court from Obama.
PRESIDENT-ELECT OBAMA: (From videotape.) And we need somebody who's got the heart to recognize -- the empathy to recognize what it's like to be a young teenage 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.
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: Can you live with that, Clarence?
MR. PAGE: Well, we've seen that with Sandra Day O'Connor, her experience as a woman being discriminated against, in spite of her stellar qualifications. She said that had an impact --
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: Well, he's saying --
MR. PAGE: -- on her -- MR. MCLAUGHLIN: -- you've got to have heart. That's what he's saying.
MR. PAGE: Right, right. And the candidates know this. I remember Clarence Thomas sounding very eloquent and passionate about his sympathy for the accused, and then once he became a justice, showed very little of it in his decisions. So I think, you know, there's part of some salesmanship of --
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: Well, what's the primary -- is heart the primary --
MR. BUCHANAN: John, heart is not primary. This is an absurdity.
MS. CLIFT: No, it isn't.
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Pat Buchanan
It is an absurdity in this sense. He is not supposed to judge what is nice and empathetic or (right to choose ?). That's for elected leaders. He's to judge whether this law they passed is consistent with the Constitution. Do they have the authority or don't they? Whether he likes it or not, a great justice will uphold the law he may despise as long as it's consistent with the Constitution of the United States.
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Olshewsky
Tue Dec 9 3:05 PM
TX
Why Take the BATEMAN?
Short Answer
YES!
rbateman
Sun Dec 7 8:10 PM
You call that on topic?
Olshewsky
Sun Dec 7 8:06 PM
TX
BACK ON TOPIC
Obama's Appointment of Shinseki (gotta Love that Name) is an Example of Obama's Stated Policy of Appointing those Able to Empathize.
The Spr Ct Nominations will be similarly Good.
Compassion is a Legitimate and Laudable Standard by which to Appoint Justices to the Spr Ct.
Counterintuitive
Mon Dec 8 5:20 AM
MD
Consider this...
The Supreme Court upholds contradictions in the body of its decisions.
It says we have a right to privacy, what we do in our own homes should not be a concern of the state as long as it does not harm others.
Sounds great!
Then the Supreme Court says that local, state and federal agencies may take your house from you.
How, exactly, may you enjoy the privacy of your home if the state exercises the power of eminent domain and takes your house away?
Counterintuitive
Mon Dec 8 4:42 AM
MD
rbateman...Sun Dec 7 11:43 PM
The Supreme Court destroyed the safety of the womb as if it were a frivolous matter.
Thomas Jefferson died on July 4th in 1826.
Abraham Lincoln was born in February 12th in 1809.
The overlap may explain why that both of these giants in the defense of Liberty found some dissatisfaction with decisions of the Supreme Court.
rbateman
Sun Dec 7 11:43 PM
Now what the devil are you up to, CI?
Wanting to destroy the Supreme Court?!!
Why don't you go find a country to live in that doesn't believe in the judicial arm of law, seeing that you find justice so dangerous.
Counterintuitive
Sun Dec 7 8:24 PM
MD
"The question whether the judges are invested with exclusive authority to decide on the constitutionality of a law has been heretofore a subject of consideration with me in the exercise of official duties. Certainly there is not a word in the Constitution which has given that power to them more than to the Executive or Legislative branches."
Thomas Jefferson to W. H. Torrance, 1815
Counterintuitive
Sun Dec 7 8:19 PM
MD
"You seem...to consider the judges as the ultimate arbiters of all constitutional questions; a very dangerous doctrine indeed, and one which would place us under the despotism of an oligarchy." -
Thomas Jefferson, September 28, 1820, to William Jarvis
Counterintuitive
Sun Dec 7 8:14 PM
MD
This is to say that the "living document" argument was feared by none other than an author of the document that created the Supreme Court.
This is to say that Olshewski may scoff at the strict constructionists but the living document argument created the so called right to legalized abortion.
Smug self-assurance buttressed by shallow media repetition of an idea is no substitute for logic and reason.
In short the Supreme Court has violated its mandate.
rbateman
Sun Dec 7 8:10 PM
You call that on topic?
Shinseki is a General, not a Judge.
The VA is a service, not a law or ruling issue.
Oh, you mean THIS WEEK'S topics.
Issue #1 - Security Cabinet - change cabinet or continuity cabinet
Obama - Mr. Pragmatic
Issue #2 - Bailout Now vs Death Soon
Issue #3 - Lie, Steal, Cheat - our kids
Why thank you so kindly for changing the channel early, it was getting rather stuffy.
Olshewsky
Sun Dec 7 8:06 PM
TX
BACK ON TOPIC
Obama's Appointment of Shinseki (gotta Love that Name) is an Example of Obama's Stated Policy of Appointing those Able to Empathize.
Shinseki is a Veteran who Suffered Wounds Both Internal & External as so many Veterans do.
Excellent Choice!!!
The Spr Ct Nominations will be similarly Good.
Compassion is a Legitimate and Laudable Standard by which to Appoint Justices to the Spr Ct.
Patty "Wack Out" Bucky is So Wrong on this one.
rbateman
Sun Dec 7 7:40 PM
Ooh, Oly, it must've been, it's just too ironic to not be true.
Ol William Jefferson Clinton was following the trail blazed 2 centuries earlier.
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