Friday, March 14, 2003

judges

Courtesy of Howard Bashman and Atrios, a well written op-ed explaining the basis for opposition to Sixth Circuit nominee Jeff Sutton (and, as an added bonus, mentioning possible Eleventh Circuit nominee Bill Pryor, previously discussed here at Ignatz).

And, because I like to repeat myself, let me state again my belief: judging is not all politics (isn't even very much politics at all, usually), but picking judges is politics. That's why it's completely irrelevant that Fifth Circuit re-nominee Owen said yesterday at a hearing that she tries to be fair and doesn't consciously try to tilt her rulings towards one side or another. No judge that I've ever heard of would say "I don't try to be fair." No judge that I've ever heard of would say "I don't try to follow the law." All judges think of themselves as doing their best to be fair and to follow the law. But the plain fact is that judges disagree about what this means in many cases; and for many judges and prospective judges, these disagreements fall into rather predictable patterns. Those predictable patterns are important considerations as we decide which lawyers should become judges.

posted by sam 7:48 AM 0 comments

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

email: first name@last name dot net