56 online
 
Most Popular Choices
Share on Facebook 6 Printer Friendly Page More Sharing
OpEdNews Op Eds   

An Argument That Has No Clothes

By Andrew Bard Schmookler  Posted by Rob Kall (about the submitter)       (Page 1 of 1 pages)   1 comment
Hasn't anyone noticed that this argument has no clothes?

I'm talking about the notion -maintained by both parties when it suits their purpose-that it would be inappropriate for a judicial nominee to answer substantive questions about his or her views on important constitutional issues.

It would compromise the integrity of the judicial process -so this argument goes-for a nominee to pronounce in advance on issues that may well come before the court in the future.

What nonsense!

Set aside the question of whether it's OK for these nominees to have opinions, so long as they don't express them. Or whether we're supposed to believe that a clever and experienced attorney, such as our most recent self-censoring nominee, John Roberts, has somehow managed to engage the basic issues of his field on behalf of his clients without ever forming an opinion of his own.

What's patently ridiculous, rather, is the argument that a judicial nominee would disqualify himself from rendering unbiased decisions in the future because he expressed his opinions on such issues now. When John Roberts takes a seat on the Court, he will be surrounded by eight other justices who have been writing opinions on countless issues for years. If John Roberts could reasonably be accused of prejudging potential future cases by articulating candidly his views on past cases and issues, then --by that same logic-- so would all these sitting judges.

By that logic, those justices that have written opinions in cases involving the right to privacy, or the interstate commerce clause, or the separation of church and state, would have to disqualify themselves from any future cases involving those issues.

But there is no logic.

And just as we have no need to dispose of judges as soon as they've expressed opinions from the bench, so there is no substance whatever to the claim that judicial nominees have any ethical obligation to decline to answer substantive questions -not about hypothetical cases, but about cases that have already been decided by the Court.

What reason can there be why Judge Roberts would be obliged not to answer -indeed why he would have the "right" not to answer-a question like, "In what ways do you agree with Justice Scalia's dissent in Lawrence v. Texas, and in what ways do you agree with the majority opinion?" His future colleagues, after all, have all answered that question most publicly when the opinion came down.

It's not surprising that there's no logic behind this supposed obligation of the nominee to demur, because the argument was never an honest one. Everyone knows it's really a mere fig leaf over the real purpose of such silence on matters of substance: to avoid giving the confirmation process any actual substance that might lead to controversy and threaten the nominee 's smooth glide toward confirmation. Invisible targets are harder to shoot down.

But what is surprising is that this empty argument is allowed to endure. How can so blatantly bogus an argument be allowed to parade in public, year after year, when it so clearly has no clothes?

America deserves better-no matter what the party of the president making the nomination. We deserve to hear substantive discussion of the vital constitutional issues whose resolution by the Court does so much to define what kind of country we are and will become.

We've long since seen that a judge's competence and character are not all we need to know, for their values and philosophies pretty predictably determine their votes. But in this country --where sellers of houses and dealers who sell cars are required by law to disclose all pertinent information-- when it comes to those whose judgments will shape our nation we're expected to buy a pig in a poke.

It's nonsense. It's unacceptable. And I'd even venture to say that it violates the spirit of our Constitution, for how can the Senate meaningfully give its "consent" when such a phony argument is allowed to keep that consent from being informed?

Andrew Bard Schmookler is the author of such books as The Parable of the Tribes: The Problem of Power in Social Evolution (SUNY Press) and Debating the Good Society: A Quest to Bridge America's Moral Divide (M.I.T. Press). He also conducts regular talk-radio conversations in both red and blue states. His website on the moral crisis besetting America today will debut on the web in the coming weeks. Schmookler can be reached at andythebard@comcast.net

Rate It | View Ratings

Rob Kall Social Media Pages: Facebook Page       Twitter page url on login Profile not filled in       Linkedin page url on login Profile not filled in       Instagram page url on login Profile not filled in

Rob Kall is an award winning journalist, inventor, software architect, connector and visionary. His work and his writing have been featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, CNN, ABC, the HuffingtonPost, Success, Discover and other media.

Check out his platform at RobKall.com

He is the author of The Bottom-up Revolution; Mastering the Emerging World of Connectivity

He's given talks and workshops to Fortune 500 execs and national medical and psychological organizations, and pioneered first-of-their-kind conferences in Positive Psychology, Brain Science and Story. He hosts some of the world's smartest, most interesting and powerful people on his Bottom Up Radio Show, and founded and publishes one of the top Google- ranked progressive news and opinion sites, OpEdNews.com

more detailed bio:

Rob Kall has spent his adult life as an awakener and empowerer-- first in the field of biofeedback, inventing products, developing software and a music recording label, MuPsych, within the company he founded in 1978-- Futurehealth, and founding, organizing and running 3 conferences: Winter Brain, on Neurofeedback and consciousness, Optimal Functioning and Positive Psychology (a pioneer in the field of Positive Psychology, first presenting workshops on it in 1985) and Storycon Summit Meeting on the Art Science and Application of Story-- each the first of their kind. Then, when he found the process of raising people's consciousness and empowering them to take more control of their lives one person at a time was too slow, he founded Opednews.com-- which has been the top search result on Google for the terms liberal news and progressive opinion for several years. Rob began his Bottom-up Radio show, broadcast on WNJC 1360 AM to Metro Philly, also available on iTunes, covering the transition of our culture, business and world from predominantly Top-down (hierarchical, centralized, authoritarian, patriarchal, big) to bottom-up (egalitarian, local, interdependent, grassroots, archetypal feminine and small.) Recent long-term projects include a book, Bottom-up-- The Connection Revolution, (more...)
 

Go To Commenting
The views expressed herein are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.
Follow Me on Twitter     Writers Guidelines

 
Contact EditorContact Editor
Support OpEdNews

OpEdNews depends upon can't survive without your help.

If you value this article and the work of OpEdNews, please either Donate or Purchase a premium membership.

STAY IN THE KNOW
If you've enjoyed this, sign up for our daily or weekly newsletter to get lots of great progressive content.
Daily Weekly     OpEd News Newsletter
Name
Email
   (Opens new browser window)
 

Most Popular Articles by this Author:     (View All Most Popular Articles by this Author)

A Conspiracy Conspiracy Theory

Debunking Hillary's Specious Winning the Popular Vote Claim

Terrifying Video: "I Don't Need a Warrant, Ma'am, Under Federal Law"

Ray McGovern Discusses Brutal Arrest at Secretary Clinton's Internet Freedom Speech

Hillary's Disingenuous Claim That She's Won 2.5 Million More Votes is Bogus. Here's why

Cindy Sheehan Bugged in Denver

To View Comments or Join the Conversation:

Tell A Friend