He really said it. If I hadn’t seen it myself, I’d have thought it was one of those deceptive Internet videos trying to discredit Barack Obama. But I saw him say it himself during coverage of a campaign stop a while back. Barack Obama said we need Supreme Court justices that have “the empathy to understand what it’s like to be poor, or African-American, or gay, or disabled, or old.” Really. He said that.
Now, empathy is all well and good but, presumably, Obama wants justices who will let empathy influence their decisions, otherwise, why bring it up? He desires empathic justices, as opposed to justices who uphold the law, defend and protect the Constitution and all that old-fashioned stuff in their oaths of office. What does being poor, or African-American, or gay, or disabled, or old have to do with justice? These things may evoke empathy but should that influence a judge’s decisions?
I maintain that a judge’s duty — or a Supreme Court Justice’s — is to uphold the law, and not let empathy or sympathy or personal feelings of any kind influence their decisions. An Obama Supreme Court, presumably, would be all touchy-feely, making things “right” instead of upholding the highest law of the land.
Again, the outcome of a case should have nothing to do with whether one party or another to a case is poor, or African-American, or gay, or disabled, or old. These qualities should not influence a court’s decision. That Barack Obama wants empathic Supreme Court Justices speaks volumes.
Obama’s remarks went largely unnoticed. Certainly they did not get the press that his “spread the wealth around” remarks to Joe the plumber got. Given increasingly empathic news media, it’s not surprising that Obama’s vision for the Supreme Court did not raise any alarms among news reporters.
But can you imagine the furor if McCain had said that we need Supreme Court Justices with “empathy for those yet unborn, people who lose the family business to inheritance taxes and law-abiding gun owners who are increasingly harrassed”? We’d still be hearing about it on the news.