A house editorial in the Christian Science Monitor makes these sound observations about President Obama and judicial nominations:
Obama’s nominees for the 13 federal judicial circuit courts will be a fresh test of his call for a new bipartisanship and a hint at his Supreme Court nominees….
Now, depending on the always-shifting partisan split in the Senate, the president could either slide liberal nominees through easily or try to find impartial candidates who can rise above either camp’s interests with a commitment to true impartiality from the bench.
Obama’s record as a senator does not indicate he has a listening heart on judicial selections. He was not one of the bipartisan “Gang of 14″ senators who, in 2005, brokered a compromise to avoid filibusters for votes on President Bush’s court nominees. He has also made clear that he wants courts to use the Constitution for social policy. Judges, he said, must have “the heart, the empathy … to understand what it’s like to be poor, or African-American, or gay, or disabled, or old.”
While such empathy is necessary for presidents or legislators, it runs counter to the judicial oath. Judges must “administer justice without respect to persons, and do equal right to the poor and to the rich.” And a Rasmussen poll last month found that nearly two-thirds of Americans say court rulings should be based on what is written in the Constitution. Only 35 percent believe Obama agrees with them on that.