Why Are Republicans So Awful at Picking Supreme Court Justices?
That's the depressing question Marc Thiessen is asking today in his column at the Washington Post.
Just compare the records over the last three decades. Democrats have appointed four justices — Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Stephen G. Breyer, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor. All have been consistent liberals on the bench. Republicans, by contrast, have picked seven justices. Of Ronald Reagan’s three appointees (Sandra Day O’Connor, Antonin Scalia and Anthony M. Kennedy) only Scalia has been a consistent conservative. George H.W. Bush appointed one solid conservative (Clarence Thomas) and one disastrous liberal (David Souter). With George W. Bush’s appointments of Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Roberts, conservatives thought finally they had broken the mold and put two rock-ribbed conservatives on the bench — until last week, that is, when Roberts broke with the conservatives and cast the deciding vote to uphold the largest expansion of federal power in decades.
Thiessen names a few possibilities of why things are so. First, "there is no penalty for voting left, but there is for voting right." Conservative justices are viciously attacked by liberal politicians and the media if they dare to vote against the liberal agenda. They're blamed for polarizing America by liberal pundits, and shamed by a liberal President in his State of the Union Address while the world watches. But what consequences does a conservative justice face if he votes left? Some on our side sigh and say how disappointed we are, while others go so far as to defend the defection as some form of covert genius.
And second, "liberal nominees can simply affirm liberal positions, while conservatives must speak cryptically in terms of their judicial philosophy," Thiessen argues. For example,
In her 1993 confirmation hearings, Ginsburg declared the right to abortion “central to a woman’s life, to her dignity” and was confirmed 96 to 3. Breyer declared abortion a “basic right” and was confirmed 87-9. Imagine if a conservative nominee said the opposite? Their confirmation battle would be a nuclear war.
Bottom line: liberals are vicious and conservatives are spineless. Is that all there is to it?
- Comment (60)
- · Quote
- · UnfollowFollow (6)
Comments:
Re: Why Are Republicans So Awful at Picking Supreme Court Justices?
CoolHand
This, sir, is the rudest thing I've ever seen you say, and as a businessman myself, I am gravely offended.
SOMEbusinessmen are without principle.
Just likeSOMEacademicsare useless fools who are prone to bloviating.
See how that works? · 42 minutes ago
I have yet to see a single major corporation stand up and fight on a matter of political principle. The Obamacare debate is especially revealing. The health insurance companies did a deal with the administration; the pharmaceutical companies did a deal with the administration; the AMA did a deal with the administration. No one stood up in defense of the individual patient. I have also watched major corporations weigh in consistently in defense of affirmative action. To hell, say they with the rights of individuals. We need to buy off Jesse Jackson and the NAACP. What I said may be harsh but it is by and large true. Businessmen tend in their public capacity to be amoral.
Jun '10
Re: Why Are Republicans So Awful at Picking Supreme Court Justices?
Right you are. Only 3 of the sitting justices were confirmed by a Republican Senate: Scalia, Roberts, and Alito.
Jun '10
Re: Why Are Republicans So Awful at Picking Supreme Court Justices?
CoolHand
Basically, because the foundation of the Judeo-Christian faith is altruism (IE everyone else before self), Republicans have a hell of a time defending the individual take-care-of-yourself nature of free enterprise and working for self enrichment in general.
Their hearts aren't in it, because all their morality is telling them that making money and taking care of yourself instead of everyone else is bad bad bad.
St. Paul in 2 Thes 3:
May '12
Re: Why Are Republicans So Awful at Picking Supreme Court Justices?
I am now coming to realize that most of the Liberals I know just assume that they are right. Do their SCOTUS nominees feel the same way?
I am becoming more Conservative, and am focusing more on doing what is right, not just what I assume is right.
My nominee might be too open to listening to Liberal judges, who are not at all open to listening to any Conservative.
Nov '10
Re: Why Are Republicans So Awful at Picking Supreme Court Justices?
Diane Ellis, Ed.:
Bottom line: liberals are vicious and conservatives are spineless. Is that all there is to it? · · 6 hours ago
Yes, for the most part, that is it. But not entirely. I have quoted Victor Davis Hanson in another thread today as follows:
http://pjmedia.com/victordavishanson/good-news-what-good-news/?print=1 [Emphasis supplied.]
Every Republican considered for a judicial appointment ought to be tested upon whether he reads or listens to the "mainstream media" and whether he is a member of the American Bar Association. Affirmative answers ought to be disqualifying.
It is the wish to be "social", as someone above has described it, that erodes the courage, good sense, and will of conservatives put on the bench.
Nov '10
Re: Why Are Republicans So Awful at Picking Supreme Court Justices?
Paul A. Rahe
CoolHand
This, sir, is the rudest thing I've ever seen you say, and as a businessman myself, I am gravely offended. · 42 minutes ago
I have yet to see a single major corporation stand up and fight on a matter of political principle.* * * Businessmen tend in their public capacity to be amoral. · 2 hours ago
My experieince on this point leads me to draw a sharp distinction between "businessmen" who are employees of publicly held corporations and "businessmen" who are owners of the businesses that they run.
The first group are in the same position as the bureaucrats who populate the governmental agencies. They respond to a will not their own and are concerned with function, not with purpose. Fighting the government risks what does not belong to them: the property of the shareholders.
If a businessman owns his own business, then he imperils what is his, being concerned only for the welfare of his own family and his employees.
The two cultures probably draw different types of people into them.
Feb '12
Re: Why Are Republicans So Awful at Picking Supreme Court Justices?
I think your bottom line does indeed say it all. Not that there's not more to say, but the conclusion will be just as you said.
Oct '11
Re: Why Are Republicans So Awful at Picking Supreme Court Justices?
It seems to me the practice of law must condition one to focus on persuasion. That's not a problem in and of itself, but earning one's living by persuasion relieves one from regular focus on the objectively measurable. Nature doesn't reward or punish lawyers, and that is a problem.
No insult to any one in particular, but a predominant focus on persuasion and relative disinterest in the objectively measurable are a pretty fair description of a mind of the left. I have to conclude that succumbing to leftist thought is an occupational hazard of the practice of law.
Drafting laws and ruling on their adherence to the Constitution are far too important to be entrusted primarily to lawyers.
Dec '10
Re: Why Are Republicans So Awful at Picking Supreme Court Justices?
Paul A. Rahe
Businessmen tend in their public capacity to be amoral.
Go on and dig in then doc.
Mayhaps I'll stop distinguishing between individual academics when I'm talking about how useless they all are too.
Isn't generalizing fun!
Big corporations are not necessarily good things, but they do not make up the bulk of businesses in the US either.
But what's it matter? We're charging toward the moral high ground here! No time for silly things like judging people as individuals. Gotta paint with that wide wide brush to save time.
Say, don't those damned dirty Jooooooose handle an awful lot of money? And don't people from Kentucky have no teeth? And those Asian people sure are good at math, right!?
When you say something stupid, just cop to it and move on.
The coverup/justification is almost always worse than the actual crime.
Dec '10
Re: Why Are Republicans So Awful at Picking Supreme Court Justices?
Joseph Stanko
St. Paul in 2 Thes 3:
Did I not say that the linkage of faith to socialism only makes sense if you don't think about it much?
Only the superficially pious or those of shallow faith would assume that Christianity would necessarily result in socialism.
However, politicians are notoriously superficial and shallow, so the theory seems to hold pretty well.
I didn't say that it was a fact that faith can't coexist with individualism and free markets, I said that shallow thinkers could easily reach that false conclusion (which was Rand's point as well, BTW).
You know the writings and had that reply on tap. I'd bet that the number of politicians that could do the same could be counted on one hand.
May '10
Re: Why Are Republicans So Awful at Picking Supreme Court Justices?
Diane, go back and re-listen to Peter's interview with Dennis Prager. His depiction of Leftist, Islamist, and American Liberty tells the tale.
Oct '11
Re: Why Are Republicans So Awful at Picking Supreme Court Justices?
Wasn't Scalia confirmed 98-0?
That was a year or so before Bork.
Can you imagine any Scalia-esque nominee sailing through with 98 votes?
May '10
Re: Why Are Republicans So Awful at Picking Supreme Court Justices?
CoolHand, I spent a 37 year career at the University of California and knew several hundreds of professors. I can only tell you that your gross generalization regarding bloviating academics is.....pretty much right on target. And in my personal life I've had the privilege of knowing a pretty fair number of small business owners, and, again, have found them much as you describe.
I believe the difference you perceive is not only a matter of the ownership stake. It is also a function of the fact that they compete in the marketplace and must take a stand and make a commitment of their personal fortune. In contrast, professors make no such commitment. A recent study by the NAS found that a student cannot really count on getting a good education at UC. http://www.nas.org/articles/politics_undermining_learning_scholars_warn_university_of_california But those professors keep getting paid. A businessman who offers a poor quality product will find himself shuttering his shop. That has a wonderful way of concentrating the mind.
Edited on July 3, 2012 at 8:15amNov '11
Re: Why Are Republicans So Awful at Picking Supreme Court Justices?
The federal judiciary has unsuprising institutional inclinations to confirm exertions of power of the central government to which it belongs.
Arizona pitted feds against states. Sebelius pitted feds against individuals and states. The key similarity: in both, SCOTUS loyally upheld federal power against states and individuals.
Don't be fooled: Arizona upheld "show papers," but rendered it a vacuity. Sebelius' ruling "against" medicaid coercion taught the feds acceptable coercion. Roberts' ignorable dicta, that the commerce clause cannot support the individual mandate, provided pretext converting federal tax authority, auxiliary power that heretofore had to be anchored to a specific enumerated power, into stand alone power for anything.
To vindicate explicitly asserted individual rights, SCOTUS might sometimes proscribe opposing exertions of federal power (more easily and often if state power). But with no particular individual right asserted, if the question is simply, "Have the feds an enumerated constitutional authority to act upon this subject matter?" SCOTUS eventually answers, "Yes."
If there exists a bulwark against federal expansion in the central government structure itself, that bulwark is the legislative, whose members, unlike judiciary and executive, are tied to particular states and constituencies.
Ultimately, the people and states must themselves enforce the 10th Amendment.
Edited on July 3, 2012 at 11:31amNov '11
Re: Why Are Republicans So Awful at Picking Supreme Court Justices?
CoolHand
Paul A. Rahe
Businessmen tend in their public capacity to be amoral.
. . .
Mayhaps I'll stop distinguishing between individual academics when I'm talking about how useless they all are too.
Isn't generalizing fun!
. . . No time for silly things like judging people as individuals. . . .
What a fool I am to jump into the middle of this!
A speculation for discussion:
All scientists, as scientists, lack morals . . . because scientific activity as such does not involve morals. Science cannot concern itself with what ought be, but with what is. Right and wrong is not a matter for scientific judgment. Therefore, a scientist, as scientist, is amoral.
But scientists are also human beings. As human beings, most do have morals.
Similar with businessmen? Academics?
Still every occupation, except motherhood, tends to impress upon its workers its own particular combination of physical and moral deformities.
Lawyers and garbagemen, doctors and automechanics, academics and con-artists, prostitutes and cooks, businessmen and ditchdiggers, philosophers and poets, . . . . we are all screwed up in our own sad ways.
I feel sorry for the whole lot of us, because none of us meets the mark. Makes me wanna chuck it all.
How's that for a generalization?
Edited on July 3, 2012 at 12:23pmMay '10
Re: Why Are Republicans So Awful at Picking Supreme Court Justices?
Conservatives tend to be less intelligent than liberals so there are fewer qualified candidates to choose from.
Nov '11
Re: Why Are Republicans So Awful at Picking Supreme Court Justices?
Yes, to your last question. That really sums it up and I am very tired of spineless Republicans.
Jan '11
Re: Why Are Republicans So Awful at Picking Supreme Court Justices?
Textbook Theissen: any and all failings on the Right can be attributed to a lack of will or fortitude. It's a tired and, frankly, profoundly lame argument.
I'm still mulling the decision over, but -- given how solid Roberts had been up to last week -- I suspect there's something more going on than a burning desire to have drinks with David Gergen.
Sep '10
Re: Why Are Republicans So Awful at Picking Supreme Court Justices?
It couldn't be that Republicans appoint Republicans who generally view government as a solution to the ills of the world and thus are in favor of its expansion. Roberts acted like a typical Republican. Thomas and Scalia are notable Justices because they do not act like typical Republicans. Roberts is a Republican appointed by a moderate Republican who had not problem embracing big government. Why is anyone surprised when he acts like the President who who appointed him?
Nov '10
Re: Why Are Republicans So Awful at Picking Supreme Court Justices?
Tom Meyer
Textbook Theissen: any and all failings on the Right can be attributed to a lack of will or fortitude. It's a tired and, frankly, profoundly lame argument.
I'm still mulling the decision over, but -- given how solid Roberts had been up to last week -- I suspect there's something more going on than a burning desire to have drinks with David Gergen. · 3 hours ago
What is it that you suspect might be "going on than a burning desire to have drinks with David Gergen"? Some subscribe to a blackmail theory, but that seems very thin to me. Do you have an idea?
It may be a lame argument to put this down to a failure of will or courage, but nothing else fits in my view. Mr. Theissen may have only a one note song, but, at least in this instance, I am inclined to think that he may well be correct.