12:08 | Chris Eisgruber - The process focuses on the wrong questions. Much of it emphasizes scandal, delicts, or "smoking guns" from the past. Should we be upset, for example, about Judge Sotomayor's "latina woman" speech? Was Judge Alito a member of a conservative alumni group, and does it matter? And there's a lot of discussion about whether nominees will bring their values to bear on cases. Of course they will! Every justice, liberal or conservative, to serve on the Court has done so. The question is how they will do so--what kinds of concerns they think the Court should address, and what kinds get left to the political process. That crucial question gets lost in the empty rhetoric about activism and restraint. |