Most of us are operating under this belief that the purpose of our appeals courts, including the Supreme Court, is to consider questions of interpretation of our laws in the light of prior court rulings and our Constitution. Yeah .. that might be what most of us think, but it is most certainly NOT what President Obama is thinking.
Sometime soon .. possibly this week .. Obama will let us know his choice to replace Justice Souter. I'm not looking for him to appoint anything resembling a strict Constitutionalist. Instead, he will appoint someone who treats the Court as merely a second legislative branch of government.
To understand just what kind of a Supreme Court Obama wants, just read this column from the Weekend editi8on of The Wall Street Journal. Back in 2001 a Chicago radio station interviewed the future president. The subject somehow turned to the Supreme Court. Obama told the listeners that he was disappointed that the Supreme Court has done little more than just defending peoples "formal rights." Obama wished that the Court had spent some more time addressing "more basic issues of political and economic justice." Uh oh. There's that "justice" word again. To me "justice" is when someone gets what they deserve. To the left "justice" is when someone gets what they want. And just what economic justice issue did Obama want the Supreme Court to spend more time addressing? Well .. how about "redistribution of wealth?" That's right! Back in 2001 Obama was telling how he wanted the Supreme Court to be a player in efforts to take money from those who earned it to hand to those who did not. There's Obama's Supreme Court ... taking wealth from those who earned it and giving it to those who want it.
There's still more change you can believe in.
Isn't this so much fun?