I am very against Judicial Activism. It was wrong in 1781 and it is wrong today. The court system was designed for one purpose; to judge the legality or illegality of legislation passed by the Legislative Branch. While I am at it, I am highly against the Executive Branch proposing legislation. Their job is to execute it. At the same time, the Legislative Branch has no business sitting in judgment.
This nation was built on a concept of checks and balances. It worked well when that system was in force. However, early Presidents failed their mission...such as the famous (possibly apocryphyal) account of Jackson saying "Marshall has made his decision, now let us see him enforce it."
First off, Marshall did not make a decision based on the merits of the case, he made a decision based on what he thought the President and State would accept. He failed in his job. Second, the President's job is not to agree or disagree with the court decision but rather to enforce it.
It is judicial activism that imparts the far-reaching effects of precedent...a flawed system I have ranted about before. If a situation required a right/wrong judgment before, that indicates there is room for (and necessity of) debate....and that decision should be reveiwed EVERY TIME, not accepted as permanent truth, unchanging and unalterable.
We won't go into some of the illicit Presidential authority-crossings from the mid to late 1800s and the 1900s...many of which we are still burdened by today. Most importantly in those was the idea the President SHOULD overreach his authority.
Be that as it may, I have this crazy belief that the average citizen should be able to comprehend the law, their rights and responsibilities before it, and have full capability to be a law-abiding citizen. That is no longer possible.
And that brings us back to Miers.
People are complainging that she has no previous judicial experience. Good. People were complaining she habitually wrote thank you and other courtesy note. Hallelujah! People were complaining she had a mixed track record that did not reveal her political ideology. That is the best news yet.
A GOOD judge would have no political ideology...they would have no agenda on behalf of one party or another. They would hold no allegiance to a thought process based on votes as opposed to right and wrong.
Before you say it...yes, she probably did have a party allegiance...and that is why I would have objected to her. However, the point still stands.
I am tired of judges being chosen based on acceptance of abortion or rejectance of it. Political leanings on Affirmative Action have no more place in Court than they do on Sesame Street. Vote-driven choices on Assisted Suicide belong in the graveyard, not the Hall of Justice.
The Court needs to become just that...a court. A place where RIGHT and WRONG are addressed...not what will get the Green Party more votes in the next election.
While I think Miers might have been the wrong candidate...I still prefer her to any of the others sitting on the court today. And there is no exception to that.
I also prefer her to every critic I have heard so far. I only wish they would develop her "failing" of courtesy.
4 years ago
2 comments:
I think it was probably a good thing she withdrew. She had no record to show how she WOULD respond to political pressure. (Seems like that should be irrelevant to a lifetime appointment, but other supreme court "justices" have proved that it is not.)
As far as not having a political ideology, believing the law is the law and the constitution means the same thing today as when it was written IS a political ideology. Just as believing there is no God is a religious belief.
On the courtesy notes and thank yous, it is just ridiculous that they were treating that as a bad thing. But most of her biggest critics were on the right, and I didn't hear any of them complaining about that.
I think she was treated poorly, and partly because she was female. John Roberts didn't have any judicial experience and didn't have a conservative track record, either, but you didn't have the GOP at his throat. Makes me ill.
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