With word that Supreme Court Justice David Souter, appointed by President George H. W. Bush, will be leaving the bench in June. This means that President Barack Obama will have the opportunity to pick a Supreme Court Justice that will most likely sit on the bench long after Obama leaves the White House.
Though Souter was appointed by a Republican, he usually sides with the so-call liberal justices on most issues. This fact has irritated quite a few on the right. To me, Souter has always demonstrated just what is wrong with the Supreme Court: it’s political.
A judge, especially one that sits on the United States Supreme Court, has no business having a personal political opinion. Their job is to judge issues not on on personal feelings or opinions, but on the law. They’re not supposed to make laws. That’s what the congress does. Their job is to take existing laws into consideration and make rulings based solely on that and that alone.
But that’s not what happens. Instead, Supreme Court justices normally decide issues based on their own personal political ideology. That is, justices not named David Souter.
Supreme Court justices should be like baseball umpires. Umpires don’t make the rules in baseball. They call balls and strikes.
The United States Supreme Court normally has nine judges. In a perfect world, most decisions made by the court would be 9-0. Occasionally, there might be an 8-1 ruling. Very rarely there would be a 7-2 ruling. Instead, too many cases come down to a 5-4 ruling with justices voting along party lines. No matter what the facts are, no matter what the law says, most justices decide cases based on their individual political leanings.
Lee B.
/ May 3, 2009Is sad- I saw a headline right after the retirement was announced, along the lines of “Obama likely to nominate woman or minority to replace Souter”. Not “Obama likely to nominate best candidate, and if they happen to be a minority or a woman, then so be it”…