I'll Take Two Conservatives, Please!
Charles Krauthammer beautifully explains the problem with Justice O'Connor-style, one-case-at-a-time, "pragmatic" approach to judging.
Picking an O'Connor clone would be a terrible mistake. But chances of it happening are heightened with the report that suggests there may be a double vacancy on the Supreme Court this summer. If Chief Justice Rehnquist resigns, expect liberals to call for "one moderate and one conservative" to fill the O'Connor and Rehnquist seats to "maintain the balance" on the court (yes, they've been doing this with O'Connor already, but a Rehnquist resignation would up the ante).
What a mistake it would be for the President to follow their advice! If he nominates two conservatives, Democrats have a problem. They would have to decide where to concentrate their fire -- and it's pretty much certain that at least one of the two conservatives would, as a result, have a relatively easier nomination process than s/he would if nominated alone.
If the President nominates one "moderate" and one conservative, however, the conservative will have as difficult a time as s/he would if nominated alone. Moreover, the Democrats can gain credibility -- and fight an "obstructionist" label -- by letting the moderate through easily and then concentrating their fire on the conservative, all the time insisting that they want to "cooperate" . . . and pointing to their treatment of the "moderate" as an example.
This doesn't even factor in all the jurisprudential headaches that another "moderate" would create.
So let's hope that nominating a "moderate" is a mistake that President Bush doesn't make.
Picking an O'Connor clone would be a terrible mistake. But chances of it happening are heightened with the report that suggests there may be a double vacancy on the Supreme Court this summer. If Chief Justice Rehnquist resigns, expect liberals to call for "one moderate and one conservative" to fill the O'Connor and Rehnquist seats to "maintain the balance" on the court (yes, they've been doing this with O'Connor already, but a Rehnquist resignation would up the ante).
What a mistake it would be for the President to follow their advice! If he nominates two conservatives, Democrats have a problem. They would have to decide where to concentrate their fire -- and it's pretty much certain that at least one of the two conservatives would, as a result, have a relatively easier nomination process than s/he would if nominated alone.
If the President nominates one "moderate" and one conservative, however, the conservative will have as difficult a time as s/he would if nominated alone. Moreover, the Democrats can gain credibility -- and fight an "obstructionist" label -- by letting the moderate through easily and then concentrating their fire on the conservative, all the time insisting that they want to "cooperate" . . . and pointing to their treatment of the "moderate" as an example.
This doesn't even factor in all the jurisprudential headaches that another "moderate" would create.
So let's hope that nominating a "moderate" is a mistake that President Bush doesn't make.
posted by LadybugUSA at 9:52 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home