Conservative pundits and their mainstream-media abettors are stunned, stunned I say, at the suggestion that a judge’s biography might have some sort of influence on his or her decisions. Somewhere under the Mojave Desert, a cabal of conservative engineers is working on the Adjudicator 9000, the amicus brief-processing automaton that will solve the problem of having, you know, humans on the Supreme Court.
I have some questions for those people.
Don’t you think that John Roberts’ loyal pro-business voting record might have something to do with his career as a private lawyer, when he was a hired hand on behalf of businesses with cases before the Court?
Don’t you think that Sam Alito’s antipathy towards abortion rights might have something to do with his being a Roman Catholic?
A little more obscurely, don’t you think that Felix Frankfurter’s belief that even students with religious objections ought to be made to say the Pledge of Allegiance might have had something to do with his own experience as a Jew seeking acceptance and integration?
Is it really only minorities and women who can’t stop their own experiences from influencing their judgments? Seems unlikely. And don’t John Roberts and Sam Alito think that their views are “better” than the alternatives? Surely they do. So Sonia Sotomayor may have been too frank when she said that a “wise Latina” would reach “better” conclusions than a white male, but frankness is not a cardinal sin.
I do wish she hadn’t said that though. It’s gonna be a long couple of months.
Judges and Biography
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