Obama Sticking With Lawless Empathy Standard
March 18, 2009In defending the first Obama federal appellate court pick yesterday atthe White House press briefing, spokesman Robert Gibbs cleared up anydoubt as to whether the President was sticking with the lawless standardfor evaluating judicial nominees that he articulated on the campaigntrail (and that he invoked as a Senator to filibuster Justice Alito andvote against Chief Justice Roberts).The President believes "that there are cases, particularly at thislevel" -- presumably the appellate level, meaning the Circuit Courts ofAppeal and the Supreme Court -- "that your own empathy and value systemleads you to make a conclusion one way or the other."This tacit admission that the ACLU values of Seventh Circuit nominee David Hamilton were a reason for his selection should be a problem for thevast majority of Americans, who disagree by a margin of 3 to 1 with theObama standard that judges should decide the most controversial andimportant constitutional and statutory cases based on their own personal"value system" and "empathy" for certain types of litigants (i.e., theones favored by the ACLU).Judges should follow the law in deciding cases -- not their own values,good or bad. And if they don't decide cases on the law, as SenateRepublican Leader Mitch McConnell has pointed out, they will have a hardtime keeping their judicial oath of office.
