[Kaslin]

Ping

[denydenydeny]

Gerald Ford may be forgiven for nominating the now-retiring John Paul Stevens

Not by me. The Stevens appointment--and its consequent 35 years of micturating on the Constitution--marks the Ford administration as a total failure.

[jazusamo]

Excellent slap down by Dr. Sowell on some SCOTUS nominees by Republican presidents, especially John Paul Stevens.

Thanks for the ping, Kaslin!

*PING*
Thomas Sowell

Recent columns
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[Clintonfatigued]

Eisenhower said that appointing Earl Warren and William Brennen were the biggest mistakes of his Presidency.

[Tzimisce]

You can always avoid a fight by surrendering, and a whole wing of the Republican party has long ago mastered the art of preemptive surrender.

Good line.

[Christian4Bush]

bump for article plus “race and politics” series

[Mr. Blonde]

I’m not an expert about the confirmation hearings back then, but it doesn’t seem like they were nearly as politicized as they are now.

My hypothesis about this is that in general people who are judges are more often than not liberal to begin with. However, when you sit on a lower court it is a lot easier to be a conservative jurist because the conservative viewpoint would seem less likely to be overturned. Once you are the final say and can’t be overturned it is much harder to not let your personal politics sneak in.

As the process has become more politicized I think it has been less of a problem because the people doing the picking have made sure of what they are getting ideologically all around.

[Travis McGee]

“Republicans too often appoint judges whose confirmation will not require a big fight with the Democrats. You can always avoid a fight by surrendering, and a whole wing of the Republican party has long ago mastered the art of preemptive surrender.”

Sowell is the master of short, sweet and to the point.

[TheThinker]

Democrats don’t ever vote in conservative jurists to my knowledge. Guess that’s why Republicans are called the stupid party or at least it has a stupid leadership.