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 5/10 Good --- thecurrent.theatlantic.com http://feeds.feedburner.com/theatlantic/TZRn
Thursday, May 08, 2008 --- 78 days ago http://thecurrent.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/05/mccains-court-dodge.php
| John McCain delivered a speech on his judicial philosophy on Tuesday. It's no surprise that liberals hated John McCain's speech on the judiciary on Tuesday, while conservatives ( mostly ) liked it. But it's disappointing that the speech didn't break any new ground in the debate over judicial nominations. McCain can be refreshingly clear when it comes to subjects that our political debate tends to constrict. Not this time. McCain criticized the use of code words to obscure judicial principles, but his speech was loaded with him. "Activist judge" is about as transparent a code phrase as there is: to everyone in politics, it means that the judge is a liberal. For liberals, meanwhile, "judicial restraint" has come to mean the inevitable erosion of individual liberty --- the judge in question must be conservative. Never mind the fact that conservative justices are often accused (and accuse each other) of being too activist on some issues, or that liberal justices often hide weak law behind the shield of precedent.
This is not to say that justices are dishonest or hypocritical -- just that the language we use to evaluate them is impoverished. Voters care about outcomes, but judicial nominees and their elite defenders pretend to argue about fuzzy principles, in the hopes of masking the fact that they are arguing about outcomes. McCain shouldn't sanction this fiction. His judicial vision isn't limited to the binary question ... |
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