Sandra D Retires

Dave Stoppenhagen | July 1, 2005
Anyone else concerned now that GW might get to appoint 2 new justices (link)

Jackie Mason | July 1, 2005
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Scott Hardie | July 2, 2005
Speaking as a liberal, I'm not worried about Bush replacing Rehnquist, who has been one of the most conservative justices on the court, and on That Issue he has always taken a pro-life stance. I don't think Bush could replace him with someone more conservative. But O'Connor is a different story: She's been a moderate justice, swinging to both sides as appropriate, and usually pro-choice on abortion votes. Not only is it bad for liberals to see her replaced by someone wholly conservative, but in my opinion, we all lose by having someone who votes strictly ideologically.

I know it's in vogue for religious people to insist that us atheists don't have a moral standard by which we live our lives, as if we're adrift in the wind, but frankly, that's bullshit. The world is not black and white, and when weighing an issue, someone must logically consider all elements in the equation and render a fair judgment, not just inflexibly stick to their ideology. What about that time a pro-life activist murdered an abortion provider and wound up on death row, and liberals who were against capital punishment had to try to save his life? What about that time "Nightline" read off the names of soldiers killed in Iraq and conservatives, trying to defend the president's agenda, were put in a position of squelching a tribute to soldiers? We live in a complex world and we need a justice of complex reasoning ability, not a robot from either end of the political spectrum.

Scott Hardie | July 2, 2005
Heh. I forgot my favorite instance of recent polical hypocrisy: When Bush supporters showed up to last summer's RNC wearing Band-Aids with purple hearts drawn on them, making fun of Kerry's "flesh wound" from Vietnam. Yes, that's right, the party that's supposed to be about honoring the troops and defending America was bashing a three-time Purple Heart recepient in favor of a guy who enlisted in the Texas Air National Guard during the war and didn't see combat. I say again, sticking rigidly to one's values is sometimes not practical in the real world.

Kris Weberg | July 3, 2005
" I say again, sticking rigidly to one's values is sometimes not practical in the real world."

Yes, but only because other people don't stick to theirs.

Scott Hardie | July 4, 2005
...which is another way of saying that the system prevents us from all living according to our true values. In other words, we're all forced to compromise, and I think we're better off with a judge who recognizes these inherent contradictions and rules with that awareness. Then again, the way I'm presenting it, a willingness to live with that awareness is an ideal in itself, one that perhaps can be lived at all times, so that's not really fair to say. It's like rooting for a certain sports team just because they're going to win anyway. I recently chastized another author for only choosing a position because it was the indefensibly correct one, and yet here I am advocating a philosophy that places truth over principle. See what I mean about the inevitability of self-contradiction? :-)

Kris Weberg | July 5, 2005
I think you mean that you're placing pragmatism over principle. Truth doesn't necessarily coincide with practice; look at any philosophy incorporating a version of Hegel's dialectic, for example.

Jackie Mason | July 20, 2005
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Scott Hardie | July 21, 2005
I have this unexplainable hunch that Roberts will turn out like Souter. I suppose I'll save my opinion of him until the confirmation hearings. Since it was Bush's stated strategy to choose a middle-right conservative who would get confirmed quickly, I commend him on a great choice, but I still suspect the lack of a long judicial record is going to come back to bite Bush in the ass.

Scott Hardie | July 21, 2005
Sandra D's comments upon learning the nomination:

That's fabulous! [He's a] brilliant legal mind, a straight shooter, articulate, and he should not have trouble being confirmed by October. He's good in every way, except he's not a woman.