Whatever happened to judging by the merits of the case?

By
Everybody wants to know exactly what Supreme Court nominee John Roberts thinks about this, that, and the other thing. They want to make sure that he has the approved views on their pet issues. Everybody is trying to predict how he would rule in this, that, or the other hypothetical situation. Some Senators are going to go so far as to demand that Roberts commit to voting one way or another on their pet issue. (Feinstein to ask Roberts about views on abortion.)

Any judge who would commit to voting a certain way on any issue before being presented with a case is unfit to serve as a judge anywhere let alone on the Supreme Court of the United States. Roberts' job, should he be confirmed, will be to make decisions based on the merits of the case brought before him.

On another note, it has been entertaining to watch the media and special interest groups spinning their wheels in desperate and painfully obvious attempts to paint John Roberts as the new anti-Christ set to take us back to the 1000s on every conceivable issue. Take this example:
Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, was delivering a speech on Wednesday in her native California. She said the court under Chief Justice William Rehnquist has used certain amendments to limit Congress' ability to address nationwide issues with federal legislation. She added that if Roberts is anti-abortion, she can't vote for him.

"It would be very difficult for me to vote to confirm someone to the Supreme Court whom I know would overturn Roe v. Wade and return our country to the days of the 1950s," she was saying, according to excerpts released before her speech.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

Rise Up In The Darkness

By
Image
The teenager who joked with me over physics and algebra homework tonight was 6 months old the morning of September 11, 2001. He spent that day like many other 6 month olds spend their days, exploring his world and being saved from his own curiosity by mom. That morning after I got tired of hauling him back from the edge of the bed he was intent on crawling over I took him downstairs to safer level terrain. I turned on the television to check the news like I did every morning back then. At first I was horrified by what I saw. One smoldering tower. Not long after, while all the reporters and newscasters were struggling to make sense of what they were seeing, one plane, another tower, and I was pissed. At that point I understood what was happening. Why did people think, and still think, that kind of wretchedness served their cause? I didn't care what the cause was. These were arrogant fools. But the news kept coming about just how wretched humanity had been to itself that day. The
Read more

Treating autism as traumatic brain injury

By
I've been doing research into autism, dyspraxia, how the normal brain works, and how an autistic/dyspraxic brain works (or doesn't work). Traumatic injury to different parts of the brain can cause the same problems suffered by autistic and dyspraxic children. Compare this list of the functions of different parts of the brain and the problems caused by injuries to those areas with these descriptions of dyspraxia and autism. What is Developmental Dyspraxia? Developmental dyspraxia is a disorder characterized by an impairment in the ability to plan and carry out sensory and motor tasks. Generally, individuals with the disorder appear "out of sync" with their environment. Symptoms vary and may include poor balance and coordination, clumsiness, vision problems, perception difficulties, emotional and behavioral problems, difficulty with reading, writing, and speaking, poor social skills, poor posture, and poor short-term memory. Although individuals with the disorder may b
Read more

Battlestar Galactica needs more colour?

By
Here are the letters I mentioned in the previous post. The one that started it (I'm guessing these letters were written after the show's first airing at the end of 2003): Galactica Needs More Diversity The problem I had with Battlestar Galactica was there were no major and very few minor African American characters. There were no Black men in the show at all or if they were, they had virtually no screentime. In the original series, Boomer and Tigh were both played by African American actors. In this rendition of Battlestar, those characters were played by Asian and White actors. In the Caprica city, there no African American extras. On the Galactica's bridge, there was only one African American actress. Another Black actress could be found playing a religious official that swore in the new President of the colonies. This was very troubling to me. Do you not want African Americans to watch your show? Do you want to project the idea that African Americans are not part of the
Read more