{"id":2211,"date":"2008-03-04T07:27:32","date_gmt":"2008-03-04T12:27:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=2211"},"modified":"2008-03-04T07:27:32","modified_gmt":"2008-03-04T12:27:32","slug":"rule-of-law-emotion-fad-mob-whimsy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=2211","title":{"rendered":"Rule Of Law<\/strike> Emotion, Fad, Mob Whimsy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jay Reding on Obama’s policy on judicial nominations:<\/p>\n

Stephen Bainbridge notes that Sen. Obama doesn\u2019t exactly get it when it comes to the rule of law<\/a>. The basic principle at stake here is this: judges are supposed to say what the law is<\/em>, not what they think it ought to be<\/em>…Here\u2019s what [Obama] said about the type of judge he would nominate:<\/p>\n

We need somebody who\u2019s got the heart, the empathy, to recognize what it\u2019s like to be a young teenage mom. The empathy to understand what it\u2019s like to be poor, or African-American, or gay, or disabled, or old. And that\u2019s the criteria by which I\u2019m going to be selecting my judges.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Paying attention yet?<\/p>\n

\n
<\/blockquote>\n

That\u2019s precisely the wrong way to pick a judge. There is a reason why the statutes of Lady Justice has her wearing a blindfold\u2014the law should not<\/em> discriminate based on how sympathetic a defendant or a plaintiff is. It is not the position of a judge to decide that someone should be treated differently under the law merely because of the color of their skin or their social disposition. We are nation of laws, not of men. The law applies equally to all, and should not be subjugated to social whim, no matter how well-intentioned.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s the legislators<\/em> who are supposed to base their decisions on “sensitivity” – given that they are elected<\/em>, that’s part of not only their job description, but – in theory – a prerequisite for the job.<\/p>\n

Obama:\u00a0 More and more, he sounds like Jimmy Carter.<\/p>\n

<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jay Reding on Obama’s policy on judicial nominations: Stephen Bainbridge notes that Sen. Obama doesn\u2019t exactly get it when it comes to the rule of law. The basic principle at stake here is this: judges are supposed to say what the law is, not what they think it ought to be…Here\u2019s what [Obama] said about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-campaign-08","category-democrats"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2211\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}