Bush's Supreme Decision

Few issues in the last several years have received public attention as much as the American judiciary. The Right has excoriated it for being too Leftist, and the Left has excoriated it for being too Rightist. The Religious Conservatives have claimed that the Court is anti-religious, and the Radical Left-wingers have claimed that it isn't Anti-Religious enough. Leftists claim they want a judge who sees the constitution as a living document, except when that means giving into a majority view that most liberals reject. Conservatives claim they want a judge who "interprets the law rather than makes law." We shall soon see if the Conservative bloc and the President hold true to this conviction, or if the Conservative bloc cheers when the President appoints an ideologue to the court instead of a strict constructionist. The Constitution is not a living, breathing document. It is a set of rules by which we have determined we will govern ourselves. If we think the rules need to change, we have a method for changing those rules. At the same time, existing rules can be applied incorrectly and the Court can determine when there has been a long-standing misapplication of the rules. Brown v. Board of Education is the quintessential example of the Court correcting such a misapplication. Ultimately the underpinning notions of the Constitution are that individuals have rights that must be upheld, must be applied equitably, and in a judicious manner. This means individual rights for all Americans, and the President needs to choose a Justice who recognizes this, even if it conflicts with his ideological beliefs. Fidelity to the Constitutional text should be the foremost concern of any Justice on the Supreme Court, and sometimes fidelity to the text requires the abandonment of tradition. I sincerely hope that equal rights, including private property rights, free speech rights, the right to freedom of religion, the right to keep and bear arms, privacy rights, equal protection, etc. are the fundamental concern of the new Justic on the Supreme Court. I am sketpical that this will happen in our era of partisanship, for which both sides are to blame, but I hope the confirmation process will bring about this desire end in spite of the partisanship. Conservatives and Liberals ought to be united on this front, but politics seems to always get in the way.