Saturday, May 02, 2009

Reflections and Projections

The New York Times gathers a bunch of legal luminaries to reflect on Justice Souter's career and legacy. The Washington Post collects a different set of legal eagles to give their thoughts on who Obama should nominate. There is a surprisingly strong consensus against nominating an appellate court judge (a sentiment I really do not share, to be honest).

Oh, and Ed Whelan urges the nomination of 2nd Circuit Judge Jose Cabranes, because he's a member of the "once-dominant species of liberal proponents of judicial restraint." Certainly not because he's 69 years old and will likely have a short tenure on the court before he can (fingers crossed) be replaced by a Republican.

3 comments:

PG said...

I still think Judge Livingston would be a clever pick, albeit unsatisfying for people worried about crim law and national security issues. She just turned 50, though, so she may already be considered too old for this.

David Schraub said...

I think we can do better.

Judge Wood Judge Wood JUDGE WOOD!

Bill Abendroth said...

I'll probably go off on this in greater detail at my own blog (where I annoy only myself), but it makes me angry beyond the capacity for rationale thought what's happened with judicial nominees. I don't have a solution--but I'm still unhappy.

Wasn't Justice Cardozo on the Supreme Court for only nine years? Eventually, we're going to be seeing emancipated minors named to the Court, all in an effort to preserve tools to a specific ideology....

As for the "long lost liberal value of judicial restraint," that reminds me of the old party game "What Super Power would You Pick if You Could Choose?" As opposed to all those adrenalin junkies who pick flying, I'd pick invisibility. Why? So I could fight crime, specifically state terrorism (You tell me how long the Myanmar/Burma military junta would stay in power, if every time one of their leaders appeared in public, he doubled over--as if some mysterious force kicked him square in the nuts!)

Any hoo, kicking guys in the nuts who say (words to the effect) why can't "liberals" go back to the principles of 'judicial restraint" like Oliver Wendell Holmes--that would be a hobby of mine...just something I did for relaxation and my own amusement......

But we digress.