ConfirmThem

By Marshall Manson Posted in Roberts — Comments () / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

From Reid Cox:

Senator Biden’s gotcha game with his conception of the “Ginsburg Rule� misses the whole point. Judge Roberts and any other nominee should not give any hints or previews as to how he would rule on contested issues because judges are charged with deciding cases which have underlying facts and circumstances. In other words, it would be a huge disservice to litigants and everyone else to make a broad policy pronouncement based on abstracts and assumptions when a later case that may come up may present very different facts and circumstances.

Moreover, let’s think a little bit about the logic of Senators being able to pin judicial nominees down on specific issues… If a nominee should be required to pronounce his advance judgment on any number of legal issues before the Senate can decide whether to confirm him/her, then that is a tacit admission that the judiciary is just another political branch of the government. If the judiciary is just another political branch of the government, then why did the Founders not want judges to be elected like the other political branches (President and Congress)? The Founders did not want the judiciary elected because they believed the judiciary needed to be independent from the popular political will, and hence apolitical, in order to be an adequate check in protecting the Constitution.