President Obama is getting lots of advice about who should replace retiring Supreme Court justice David Souter. Basically, the advice is all the same\u201d \u201cPick one that\u2019s like me!\u201d<\/p>\n
The new justice should be Hispanic, or black, or a woman, or gay, as if being a member of a class will engender jurisprudence.<\/p>\n
I won\u2019t argue against the notion that certain life experiences can infuse one\u2019s view of what the Constitution protects. And the right\u2019s criticism that the new justice should only interpret the law, not make it, and be a \u201cstrict constructionist\u201d is laughable. The right, after all, was perfectly happy to have a close majority of the Supreme Court decide an election. And they wanted the courts to interfere with a husband\u2019s right to make health decisions for his incurable, terminal wife. Don\u2019t make law, they say, unless it is a law they like.<\/p>\n
Empathy is not what I\u2019d look for in someone to take Souter\u2019s seat. Experience is. Experience in the law, sure, but also in the fresh experience in America. I think the president should chose someone who is close to his or her Americanization. By that I mean I\u2019d like to see someone who, if not a naturalized citizen, is the offspring of immigrants. Someone who saw his or her parents struggle to learn the language and customs, fight discrimination and sacrifice to allow their child to fulfill the America dream.<\/p>\n
Certainly a few of the usual suspects bandied about as nominees would fit this description. But the important thing is not that they are Hispanic in particular, but that they have witnessed first hand the Americanization process. I think such a person has a particular outlook on what the American experience can mean. I don\u2019t want them to rule in any particular way on immigration or any other issue. I just think American justice and freedom is a bit fresher in their minds than those of us who aren\u2019t as close to the immigrant experience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
President Obama is getting lots of advice about who should replace retiring Supreme Court justice David Souter. Basically, the advice is all the same\u201d \u201cPick one that\u2019s like me!\u201d The new justice should be Hispanic, or black, or a woman, or gay, as if being a member of a class will engender jurisprudence. I won\u2019t… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[60,67],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}