The Constitution is Still Number One
Julia Shaw /
Prior to his presidency, Senator Obama famously announced that empathy would be his criteria for selecting judges. Although Sonia Sotomayor deemphasized her empathetic understanding of the law, many on the left still advocate empathy as the criteria for judges. James Gibson is no exception.
In a recent article, “Expecting Justice and Hoping for Empathy,” Gibson discusses his recent survey that revealed 68% of polled individuals strongly agree with the statement that justices should “Be able to empathize with ordinary people – that is, to be able understand how the law hurts or helps the people.” Gibson concludes that “if President Obama cares about what the American people want on the nation’s highest bench, he should return to the criterion of empathy.”
68 is a big number, but it’s not as large as 74.
74 is the percentage of respondents who strongly agreed with the statement that judges should “Uphold the values of those who wrote the U.S. constitution long ago,” making the constitution the top concern for selecting judges. (more…)
