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Add comment July 13th, 2009

George Will says conservatives have good reason to support judicial activism in some cases

3 comments July 13th, 2009

 While rummaging through some old newspaper clippings this afternoon, I ran across a column George Will wrote four years ago that has great relevance to our current national debate about the judiciary.

 Luckily, a digital version of the piece is still available and is offered HERE for your edification.

I guess it’s time for another look at the identity politics of Justice Samuel Alito

2 comments July 13th, 2009

 (The bunkum I’m reading from conservative commenters regarding the Supreme Court nomination of Sonia Sotomayor prompts me to recycle this post of mine from about six weeks ago.)

 According to some of our friends on the political right, one of Sonia Sottomayor’s disqualifications for a seat on  the Supreme Court is that she seems inclined to bring her gender, ethnicity and humble beginnings to her work as a judge.

 Such “identity politics” have no place in the judiciary, argue the conservatives.

 Ah, but where we these critics during confirmation hearings for conservative jurist Samuel Alito in January 2006?

 Here’s part of what Alito had to say:

I don’t come from an affluent background or a privileged background. My parents were both quite poor when they were growing up.

And I know about their experiences and I didn’t experience those things. I don’t take credit for anything that they did or anything that they overcame.

But I think that children learn a lot from their parents and they learn from what the parents say. But I think they learn a lot more from what the parents do and from what they take from the stories of their parents lives.

And that’s why I went into that in my opening statement. Because when a case comes before me involving, let’s say, someone who is an immigrant — and we get an awful lot of immigration cases and naturalization cases — I can’t help but think of my own ancestors, because it wasn’t that long ago when they were in that position.

 And so it’s my job to apply the law. It’s not my job to change the law or to bend the law to achieve any result.

But when I look at those cases, I have to say to myself, and I do say to myself, “You know, this could be your grandfather, this could be your grandmother.” They were not citizens at one time, and they were people who came to this country.

When I have cases involving children, I can’t help but think of my own children and think about my children being treated in the way that children may be treated in the case that’s before me.

And that goes down the line.  When I get a case about discrimination, I have to think about people in my own family who suffered discrimination because of their ethnic background or because of religion or gender. And I do take that into account. When I have a case involving someone who’s been subjected to discrimination because of disability, I have to think of people who I’ve known and admire very greatly who’ve had disabilities, and I’ve watched them struggle to overcome the barriers that society puts up often just because it doesn’t think of what it’s doing — the barriers that it puts up to them.

So those are some of the experiences that have shaped me as a person.

 For more on this matter, including a video of Alito’s testimony, check HERE.

Racist wingnuts attack 11-year-old for her T-shirt

17 comments July 13th, 2009

 When Malia Obama, the older of the president’s two daughters, was photographed last week wearing shorts and a peace-symbol T-shirt in Italy, commenters at the right-wing FreeRepublic.com waxed apoplectic.

 The offending remarks have since been taken down, but here are a few that were captured by liberal bloggers for posterity:

 ”we;’re being represented by a family of ghetto trash.”

 ”Looks like a bunch of ghetto thugs. A stain on America.”

 ”Looks like a typical street whore.”

 ”What we now are sending the ghetto over to represent us. and if so who the hell is that flea bag who looks to be dragged from the trash dumpster.”

 ”you could go down any ghetto right now and see exactly the same.”

 ”could you imagine what world leaders must be thinking seeing this kind of street trash and that we paid for this kind of street ghetto trash to go over there”

 ”the world must be laughing like mad right now at that we have this kind of street trash in our white house.”

 ”Wonder when she will have her first abortion.”

 ”sad isn’t it that we now have ghetto street trash over there representing us in Europe.”

 ”AND NONE I REPEAT NONE of the Palin kids never even ventured into the public arena making anykind of statement comparable to this Obubbo’s daughter.”

 ”This disgusting display makes me more and more eager for the revolution.”

 ”They make me sick…. The whole family… mammy, pappy, the free loadin’ mammy-in-law, the misguided chillin’, and especially ‘lil cuz… This is not the America I want representin’ my peeps.”

Sheldon Whitehouse nails it

9 comments July 13th, 2009

 The opening statement by the junior senator from Rhode Island at this morning’s Sotomayor hearings should be read by every American.

 Check it out HERE.

If you were out of the loop for the Sunday talk shows, as I was, here’s a chance to catch up

2 comments July 13th, 2009

These hearings don’t have to be about nothing

Add comment July 13th, 2009

 Georgetown University law professor Randy E. Barnett worries that this week’s Senate confirmation hearing for Sonia Sotomayor will be, like “Seinfeld,” a show about nothing.

 It doesn’t have to be that way, Barnett ARGUES. The hearing could be entertaining, informative and educational. It could be “about the meaning of the Constitution, which is to say it would be about something.”