An Outside View

If you're struggling to understand the source of all the heated debate over the Miers nomination, check out this evaluation from the other side of the planet:

Maybe my being an Australian is responsible for my puzzlement but I CANNOT understand the uproar among conservatives (e.g. here) over the nomination of Harriet Miers to the US Supreme court. She is not a famous legal brain but since when has the court been about the law at all? Were Thurgood Marshall or Ruth Bader Ginsburg appointed for anything but their rusted-on Leftism? Was the Grutter v. Bollinger decision a legal marvel or a defiance of the clear meaning of the 14th Amendment? Was Roe v. Wade anything to do with the constitution at all, considering that the constitution does not even mention the word abortion? SCOTUS has long been a political body rather than a legal one and GWB is appointing the most reliably conservative lawyer he knows. Conservatives should be applauding him for treating the court as the political joke it has long been and presumably always will be. Maybe my Australian bluntness prevents me from understanding the mythologies involved.

John Ray has a firm understanding of the highly political nature of the SCOTUS. What he doesn't see, perhaps from the distance, is that many on the right despite saying they want strict constructionist on the court really just want different politics.

It stems, I think, from their own deep involvement with their political philosophy and either their inability to separate political philosophy from their judicial philosophy, or just a complete lack of a judicial philosophy all together.

Based on my estimation of President Bush's nominations I am fairly certain that he and I share a similar judicial philosophy. Judges should rule based on the law and not politics. If a ruling comes down that does not agree with my politics but is made in accordance with the law then my recourse is to seek to change the law. The question has been debated as to whether or not Miers will “vote right.” I believe it matters less how she votes and more how she thinks, and apparently we are going to have to wait for the hearings to get any real clues to that.

If you don't like the politics and the politicization of the court, the answer is not to change the politics but to remove the politics. Return judging to the law and leave the politics to the politicians.

Technorati Tags: harriet miers, Supreme Court

Posted by: Stephen Macklin at 05:26 PM | No Comments | Add Comment