Whoever puts his hand on the Bible and takes the oath of office to be the next president of the United States in January 2009 will immediately have the power to permanently change America’s culture and values. How? That president, either Barack Obama or John McCain, will very likely have the opportunity to fill two or more vacancies on the United States Supreme Court and hundreds of of other judicial slots on important federal courts around the county.
This is one reason why Senate Democrats are refusing to fill any more vacancies with nominees submitted by President Bush. Liberal Democrats are trying to run out the clock on the Bush Administration, waiting until next year when President Obama could put 40-year-old leftwingers on the bench and, thus, set social policy in this country for the next several generations.
I thought it might be useful to look at what both Senator McCain and Senator Obama promise to use as their criteria in selecting judicial nominees. At a speech at Wake Forest University this month, Senator McCain said:
I will look for accomplished men and women with a proven record of excellence in the law, and a proven commitment to judicial restraint. I will look for people in the cast of John Roberts, Samuel Alito, and my friend the late William Rehnquist – jurists of the highest caliber who know their own minds, and know the law, and know the difference. My nominees will understand that there are clear limits to the scope of judicial power, and clear limits to the scope of federal power.Addressing the 2007 Planned Parenthood convention in Washington, Barack Obama wholly embraced judicial activism when he said this:
The Constitution can be interpreted in so many ways. And one way is a cramped and narrow way in which the Constitution and the courts essentially become the rubber stamps of the powerful in society. And then there’s another vision of the courts that says the courts are the refuge of the powerless. Because often times they may lose in the democratic back and forth. They may be locked out and prevented from fully participating in the democratic process. That’s one of the reasons that I opposed Alito, you know, as well as Justice Roberts.
…And we need somebody who’s got the heart …the empathy to recognize what it’s like to a young teenage mom, the empathy to understand what’s it like to be poor or African-American or gay or disabled or old. And that’s the criteria by which I’m going to be selecting my judges.
There you have it, my friends. Senator McCain has voted for every conservative judge nominated and is promising to appoint more. Senator Obama thinks the Constitution is beside the point and he wants judges who will order the imposition of the liberal agenda by judicial fiat.
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