The confirmation process for Supreme Court justices has deteriorated. It has become about politics, not the law, nor the constitution. And we have reached a new low.
Part of the blame for a more political process can be laid on judges. Today too many of them act like politicians. Their decisions respect their personal views, not the laws.
Would the landscape for judicial confirmations look different if judges kept out of politics? If justices were trying to have an objective approach we would view them differently. If they remained focused on the law rather indulging their personal prejudices we would have a very different process.
Judges should abstain from politics
Judges should refrain from commenting on anything political. However, today too many judges are not serious about taking politics out of the judicial sphere. Chief Justice Roberts felt the need to go out in public and say there are no Obama judges or Bush judges, they’re just judges. We all know that is simply not the case today Mr. Chief Justice. Keeping your head in the sand does not change the fact that the judiciary is heavily politicized.
The fact that Chief Justice Roberts feels that he ought to respond says all we need to know. If he feels compelled to participate in political debates how is that not encouraging more political behavior? With his action, the Chief justice is only encouraging more efforts to influence the Supreme Court’s decisions through political pressure. We saw the use of political pressure on the judiciary extensively in the last administration.
The latest attack on Justice Kavanaugh shows how far the left will go to intimidate justices. They stop at nothing in an attempt to influence the court. The New York Times reporters wrote a book which the Times then misquoted. It used its editorial voice in a reporting piece. It is journalistic misconduct. The paper has become an extreme leftist propaganda rag. The nickname should be changed from the Gray Lady to the Red Shoe Lady.
Misconduct
Kavanaugh just joined the bench. The Democrats can’t seriously think they’re going to impeach him. But they think they might be able to influence him. More importantly, they believe they can affect the next people who are going to be confirmed for future vacancies at the Supreme Court. This was extreme Borking. It crossed the line into legislative and journalistic misconduct.
The left’s attacks on the personal beliefs of some judges are inappropriate. When it comes to faith and other convictions the Senate has crossed the line. What legitimate reason would Senator Feinstein have to care about what Amy Barrett’s religious beliefs? Why would Senator Blumenthal attack a nominee because he belongs to the Knights of Columbus? Why do senators care why a judicial nominee wrote something in their school newspaper 25 years ago? The answer is because the senators, leftists that they are, believe judges decide cases based on their personal views. That is what leftists do. It is not what a quality jurist is duty-bound to do.
Building bias into the judiciary
For that reason, leftist senators want to know what those personal views are. These bits and pieces of information will tell them kind of what’s in the judge’s or the nominee’s heart. The problem with that is it assumes judges cannot do the job they are hired to do. They assume the nominee is guilty until proven innocent. The job judges are hired to do is to follow the law and make a decision on matters of fact under our system of jurisprudence.
The left relies on personal attacks on conservative nominees. It does so because the left sees it as a way to produce a legacy on the courts. The real issues are the differences in the power of judges and how judges go about approaching what they do. That is the issue we must debate when we vote for senators. Elect leftist senators like Shaheen and you get political and biased courts.
Conclusion
The reason that the leftists use the tactics of personal destruction is because of the kind of judiciary they want. Leftists want an all-powerful judiciary. They want the judiciary to confirm their entire political agenda legal or not. They’ll do anything to try to achieve their goal, which is tyranny, not liberty. It is a cult of death, which does not believe in life either young or old. The only property right they respect is that they get to control all property. Your interests be damned. We should get rid of political judges because they are both cause and effect.