An Experiment in Scotch

Tuesday, July 05, 2005

Stephen Carter talks about the nomination process for the Supreme Court and how it went terribly wrong in the Jim Crow era and is only compounded now. He talks about how both sides now believe it's up to them to either appoint someone of the appropriate ideological bent (if it's the party in power) or defeat any appointee brought up (if it's not the party in power). It's disappointing that it has come to this.

Carter has the following to say about the current situation:

The left of that era was correct. The spectacle we have made of confirmation hearings reinforces the public notion that the justices exist to decide cases the way political movements want them to. Liberals think the right started it, and conservatives think the left started it, but the important question is not who started it but who is going to stop it."

That is an important question, but unfortunately, we don't currently have anyone in power in either party to stand up and make that call. Too much is at stake for both parties in this fight. I believe Bush is a strong man but I can't see him telling the far right of his party to take a hike (though I'd LOVE to be proven wrong on this one count). And ever since the Democrats basically shut Lieberman down, I just don't see anyone on that side of the aisle with the intestinal fortitude to tell Bush to just appoint someone who will get the job done correctly.

The politiziation of our judicial system is something that will eventually become a huge problem I think. While I'm not so naive as to believe that judges are political, their job is to decide an issue based on the facts, not their particular ideological beliefs. The fact that a Kozinski or a Posner have little to no chance of being nominated shows what a partisan game this has become.

The job above all others of a justice on the Supreme Court is to take the Constitution of the United States in one hand and the facts of a case in the other and make sure that the case fits within the confines of our Constitution, nothing else. There should be little politics to it. The fact that the current Court has taken to looking abroad for advice and finding ways to take private citizens land away from them is an abomination.

Yes, it's going to be an ugly, ugly summer. I hope that something good comes out of it but the cynic in me is not making any side bets.
10:27:58 PM permalink What do you think? [] trackback []