Obama and the Law (Sowell on Obama)

Jewish World Review ^ | October 28, 2008 | Thomas Sowell

[jazusamo]

One of the biggest and most long-lasting "change" to expect if Barack Obama becomes President of the United States is in the kinds of federal judges he appoints. These include Supreme Court justices, as well as other federal justices all across the country, all of whom will have lifetime tenure.

Senator Obama has stated very clearly what kinds of Supreme Court justices he wants— those with "the empathy to understand what it's like to be poor, or African-American, or gay, or disabled, or old."

Like so many things that Obama says, it may sound nice if you don't stop and think— and chilling if you do stop and think. Do we really want judges who decide cases based on who you are, rather than on the facts and the law?

If the case involves a white man versus a black woman, should the judge decide that case differently than if both litigants are of the same race or sex?

The kind of criteria that Barack Obama promotes could have gotten three young men at Duke University sent to prison for a crime that neither they nor anybody else committed.

Didn't we spend decades in America, and centuries in Western civilization, trying to get away from the idea that who you are determines what your legal rights are?

[jazusamo]

Good point and I’m sure you’re right.

I still haven’t learned how to spell politician. :)

[Tax-chick]

He said it himself, in “A Personal Odyssey,” and probably elsewhere. And you never know (and we never will, since he’s 78), but he might have believed he could do much more for the country as an economist and political philosopher than as a vice-presidential candidate.

[The Raven]

That's not "a living Constitution." That's a dying Constitution"

What really eats at me is that I'm constantly put in the position of not voting for or against a candidate but for or against the Constitution. For or against giving up more power and rights. For or against the road to serfdom.