Orrin Hatch: Empathy Is a Code Word for an Activist Judge
By Heather Sunday May 03, 2009 4:00pm
Sen. Orrin Hatch on ABC's This Week, discussing President Obama's options for replacing David Souter on the Supreme Court, thinks that if a judge is a person of empathy, that's a code word for an "activist judge". Which is to say, he won't overturn Roe v. Wade. (That's right: the "activists" are the ones siding with the status quo.) Everything has to be about abortion with these people.
Sen. Pat Leahy reminds Hatch that the President doesn't need to use "code words" -- and besides, we've already had an activist court when it comes to discrimination against women in the work place.
Question for Orrin Hatch: Does this mean that Republicans have no empathy?
STEPHANOPOULOS: Gentlemen, welcome to you both. And Senator Hatch, let me begin with you. What did you make of the criteria the president laid out?
HATCH: Well, it's a matter of great concern. If he's saying that he wants to pick people who will take sides -- he's also said that a judge has to be a person of empathy. What does that mean? Usually that's a code word for an activist judge. But he also said that he's going to select judges on the basis of their personal politics, their personal feelings, their personal preferences. Now, you know, those are all code words for an activist judge, who is going to, you know, be partisan on the bench.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Now, he did also say he wants someone who respects the rule of law and the limits of the judicial role...
HATCH: He did say that.
STEPHANOPOULOS: So it sounds like you're saying that you think there's a tension between following the law and following your feelings when you're a judge.
HATCH: Well, I don't think there should be a litmus test or any set of litmus tests when you pick people for the high court, and I suspect that the president understands that. He's a very bright guy, charismatic, intelligent, likable, and I'm hoping that he'll pick somebody of great dimension.
We all know he's going to pick a more liberal justice. Their side will make sure that it's a pro-abortion justice. I don't think anybody has any illusions about that. The question is, are they qualified? Are they going to be people who will be fair to the rich, the poor, the weak, the strong, the sick, the disabled, and yet give justice to those who may not be...
(CROSSTALK)
STEPHANOPOULOS: Chairman Leahy, let me bring you in on this, because what Senator Hatch is saying there I've heard from a lot of other conservatives, this fear that the president's focus on empathy is a code for bringing a judicial activist to the court.
LEAHY: I've known President Obama long enough. He doesn't need to use code words. He speaks very plainly and very directly. I think that's why he won such a resounding victory in November.
I talked with President Obama shortly before he did that press conference, and I think I have a pretty good sense out of the meeting with him when I returned to Washington from Vermont -- I have a pretty good sense of what he has in mind for a justice. What I would argue...
STEPHANOPOULOS: What is it?
LEAHY: What I would argue...
HATCH: I would like to know that, Pat.
LEAHY: What I would argue is you walk into the Supreme Court, over the doorway there is a great big piece of Vermont marble, and engraved on it, it says "equal justice under law." That's what you want to have.
We've had a very activist court. We had an activist court that made a decision that allowed employers to covertly discriminate against women so that women wouldn't get paid equally. We in the Congress reversed that with a law, in fact, the first law that President Obama signed into law. I think he wants to have somebody to treat people all the same, whether they're Republicans, or Democrat, men, women, or whatever they may be.
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is my code word for whorin hatch!
That is not very coded...
I had to decode 'GD'.
no EMPATHY for the American people...He and His party are all about Corporate/Business and against the American people!
We do need a balance from the Republican conservative activist court we now have! Empathy for real people would be a wonderful change from the morass of the judical branch that favors the Rich/business over the individual!
I really do love the Republican definition of "Activist Judge." When a right-wing judge on the bench makes a questionable ruling that advances the conservative point of view it is just applying the law in a strict fashion. But when a judge's ruling is seen as liberal they start screaming about judicial activism.
I just posted an entry about this like 15 minutes before you did Heather:
http://yellingatthemoon.com/2009/05/03/republ...
But wants a judge who's anti-abortion. That sounds like kind of a litmus test, doesn't it, Orrin?
Wasn't that the litmus test you applied to every Bush candidate for the Supreme Court?
It's only a litmus test if a liberal requires it.
If a conservative feels it's a requirement, well, then, it's just common sense and a rational judicial expectation.
Is EVERY republican just a big full-Pampers whiny crybaby?
not just a pampers full whiner, but also socially challanged.
There is a strain in so-called conservatism which equates empathy with socialism. Foes of a caring society showed themselves in the aftermath of Katrina. We can expect more demonization of empathy to come.
god and jesus better watch out.....
their empathy for the poor and meek
will get in the way of the reichwingnuttia
gop bastards...look for god bashing now from the gop
gotten his name on the organization, all those good christians wouldn't give him the time of day. Those damn empaths make right-wingers look bad.
After the clearly partisian decision by the Rupublican controlled Supreme Court in Gore v Bush, no one should ever mention activists judges again. They stole an election and started 8 years of darkness.
which certainy explains a LOT about all kinds of things...
hatch like the rest of the hypocrits in the gop
are afraid that obama will do JUST WHAT THEY HAVE DONE,
and chose partisan political judges for the supreme court.
well, hatch you better be ready for it,
move that tongue of yours out of the way
for here comes your double fist up your own ass.
i hope you don't punch yourself in the eye.
It says a lot about people who think that when someone uses the English language to express an idea, that those words don't actually mean what the words mean, but actually, thanks to their shrewd translation, mean something else.
It says that they themselves use this method of communication, and so actually don't mean any of the things they say.
Exactly. Just as the last 8 years have proven, words such as "We don't torture" are ACTUALLY codewords for "We LOVE to torture the hell out of brownskinned people!"
So that explains how we've ended up living in Bizarro World.
"Empathy Is a Code Word for an Activist Judge" is a code phrase for being a power-hungry, right-wing, soulless, worthless empty husk of a human being.
Hatch would have to agree with the Dred Scott decision then - a literalist interpretation devoid of empathy.
of a Supreme Court Judge was one of the reasons that I voted for Obama, just one of the reasons.
Damn straight.
*
when I voted to throw the repubs out. That is where the power is and Obama can change the makeup in the next seven plus years. This selection won't change the balance on the court but the next conservative that is out will be the game changer. Hope Ginsburg can outlast with her medical problems though.
NO ONE is "pro-abortion". No one. Nada. Nein.
These so-called "pro-life" advocates, who also for the most part avidly support the death penalty, insist on calling "pro-choice" something that it's not.
Yeah, take my choices away, and make the United States a dictatorship, all you Republicans, all of you who make an black art of projection.
I'm pro-choice. And one of the choices I support is abortion. Therefore I am pro-abortion.
Either that, or maybe you haven't really thought it through. Under what circumstances do you believe it is OK for the government to mandate abortion?
See, right off the top of my head, I can't really think of any situation where I want the government to make that decision for me, or for any other woman. There may be situations where I think that an abortion would be the better decision, but damned if I want the government to make that decision.
So, that makes me pro-choice.
I'd rather be a socialist than a sociopath - like the conservative republicans.
These conservatards have produced the most pro-corporate, anti- ameircan court in nearly a century. And now they want to whine about it? Let them, it will only marginalize them even more.
Wasn't it an activist "rogue" conservative court that appointed the boy idiot president in 2000, and nearly destroyed the U.S.?
These republicans know they have absolutely no chance of winning at the ballot box for the next two generations (just like during my parents and grandparents era). So, their only hope at having any political relevance, is to desperately try to keep a 5 seat majority of dithering old fools from the Reagan/Bush era on the court, where they can continue to hoist their outdated, evil, and unpopoular idiotic conservative policies on the American public.
Screw em.' Let them wine till they cry uncle!
Orrin the Mormon understands Joseph Smith, Moroni, polygamy, pedophilia, tithe, Brigham Young, bigotry and a host of other "wonderful" things that the LDS offers. But he _ and the GOP _ really have no clue about empathy because they've never felt it or practiced it. They'll attach whatever definition they want for words they despise.
...and he'll do it in the same way that I've seen so many fine, upstanding Xtianists sneeringly condemn anybody who attempts to show the smallest of christianly virutes as being a filthy, bleeding-heart liberal. Orrin the altruist.
Well bless your heart.
"Bless his heart...his little ol' brain must roll around in his head like a BB on a six-lane highway."
To the Republicans, Empathy is a code word for activist, and activist judge is their code word for a liberal judge. Empathy is a dirty word to conservatives like Hatch.
'...elections have consequences.' - Shotgun Dick
Make sure you scream 'up or down' once a nominee is selected.
...is that Obama'll pick somebody who shows more respect for the Constitution than he has thus far. If he does that, all other issues will take care of themselves, on the side of doing the right thing. He does that, and he will have gone a long way toward redeeming himself for some of his other short falls.
Supreme Court nominations are the main reason I got out and voted on election day.
I am sooooo sick and tired of these asshole Republican hypocrites. They got their Scalia and Roberts ans Alito and Thomas. Thomas!!!! The worst judge on the Supreme court in a hundred years? Who are they to say one god damn word about who Obama wants to nominate? When are they going to figure out that they are now irrelevant and that they will be irrelevant for a long long time?
Activist court = anytime they make a decision I don't personally like.
I get so tired of politicians using this phrase. There is a system of checks and balances and I know that republicans have been too busy sucking off the executive branch to take any notice, but the judicial branch has a very important role in putting the brakes on the crazy train (ie- a congress who wants to pass unconstitutional laws). If Hatch doesn't like activist judges, I suggest he stop backing legislation that is unconstitutional.
Dear Mr. Orrin AssHatch:
You don't get to pick.
So sorry. Not only do you NOT get to pick this one -- but Obama is not going to ask you for your opinion.
When I cast my ballot, I did so knowing that for me - no other single issue was more important than the Supreme Court. I voted for Obama because I wanted him picking the judges - not McCain.
So shut your big mouth and go away.
By the way -- because of your personal interest in activist judges, I would like to point out that two good examples of activist judges would be Alito and Roberts.
*
...and well said.
Yes, very well said. I will only add that Obama better appoint somebody who is at least as to the left as Alito and Roberts are to the right. At least!!
during the long never ending saga that was the bush administration..
someone sent me a song - HANG ON - it was a plea to all the liberal judges to hang on until they could be replaced by a
Democratic president.....sorry can't find it to link to, but i
am so proud of Souter, Stevens, and Ginsberg for
keeping hope alive in all of us.
and pleased as punch that old orrin has to sit this one out.
no one cares what he has to say. my only hope is that the
msm won't give him the air time............i know-silly me.
"Scalito" and Roberts. Why are we not surprised?
and alito is an absolute abomination
not only does he have no empathy, but i doubt he really cares about the law
Alito and Scalia are two pieces of work aren't they? So called conservatives, who hate the common man.
And Thomas may be the most miserable cretin in America. I'm surprised he's not on a suicide watch.
...........Thomas, the nepotism appointee of Bush Sr. Let's not 'forget' that MONSTER Embarrassment, can only be pinned on the Party of Sociopaths'
expensive suit. Wonder how much it cost? Wonder where he got the money?
Lol, the Code Word when Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch, or any other Wingnut, speaks is Bullsh*t! These people need help, they are very sick because they are fear and hate ridden bigots.
Does it bother you that every time you open your mouth America is reminded of how stupid you are?
And that we are also reminded of why we voted for THE OTHER GUY?
*
Hey Orin, when I give you the finger it is code for "fuck you".
elections have consequences -- posturing, politicking by hatch aside.
it's more important what obama thinks and who he chooses. no matter what action/opinion a judge holds/takes, it constitutes advocacy in some direction.
more direct (not coded) to hatch et al: "snap out of it!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0x-fkSYDtUY
An unelected chimp put 2 conservative activist judges on the court with no concern with putting an moderate in an effort to, you know, reach out to over the half of the country who did not vote for him in an effort to reach "bipartisanship". Obama won an electoral landslide. Elections have consequences.
F*ck Orin Hatch and the rocking horse he rode in on. I hope Obama's choice eats a Ben and Jerry's during every case that comes before the court just to rub Roberts and Alito's noses in it.
...ya, and the same goes for the the chimp he's riding out of town on.
baboon Cheney too. "So?"
And if Alito and Scalia choke on a cannoli I hope they do so while Obama's in office.
Or course I mean IF. Far be it from me to wish ill will on them.
According to the Chief Psychiatrist to the Nuremburg trials" Evil is the lack of empathy".
Is that what orrin supports, EVIL ?
No kidding. this is very disturbing... Go on!
Obama better go out of his way to make me and Trittydi 17:53 very happy. If he doesn't he will be in for a long 3 1/2 years because he will not win another election. We voted for him for just this moment and he better fucking deliver*.
*Note to Obama: You ran on this selection. Don't let us down.
we think obama is president,
not you......
Damn correct Obama is president. That is why he is appointing the next Supreme Court justice. That is why I am asking/telling him to appoint who I would like to have on the court instead of looking in the mirror and telling me who to appoint.
Activist Judge is the codeword for empathy. And we wouldn't want any of that!
There is no use of that term by the Democratic side of the political spectrum, only from the right, and they need to be a bit circumspect. The ultimate, most radical example of judicial activism, sat in the White House for the years 2000-2008.
pure projection.
Bush used in-house legal opinions to torture, and signing statements to negate/transform laws passed in the House. Stuff like (I'm making this next part up, but...):
Rendition of American citizens is unlawful, (Bush signing statement: unless I say so.)
shouldn't that be
Bush used in-house (il)legal opinions?
Is "are they qualified? Are they going to be people who will be fair to the rich" code words for "I am another Republican douchebag with Republican douchebag priorities"?
Is that brilliant legal mind Harriet Miers no longer available?
Activist Judge is code word invented to bring racists on to the side of the GOP. It is code for judges who will take away "states rights", their right to segregate and be racist that is!
Activist Judge is code word invented to
bring racists on to the side ofstop racists from leaving the GOP.Fixed.
scorned empathy too, didn't they?
they dont have the votes to block a nomination
if they try what they did to clinton....we will crush them like gnats
with major heartburn?????
Then here's the best pick for Obama to make to replace Souter:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2009...
Hey! What fun it would be to hear O'Reilly, Hannity, Limpballs and the rest kvetch.
O-bought-ma needs to appoint GORE!!, then every PUKIE would be committing suicide, pronto!
O-bought-ma needs to appoint GORE!!, then every PUKIE would be committing suicide, pronto!
Empathy is a code word for a decent human being. Surely we don't need any decent human beings on the highest court in the land. Do we?? Orrin.
If they keep this up they will be calling the democratic party fascist hypocrites next. That's after it hits them that the democrats were right about republican hypocrisy and republican fascism.
Orrin Hatch is one of the most annoying of all in the insane geriatric obsolete party. He can burn in hell with his lack of empathy and whining.
ths
http://thetorturer.com - coming in October '09
Don't know what he's so worried about, Obama used the states secrets bs to protect Hatch's two biggest sugar daddies I'm sure Obama will be just as much of a corporate whore as he needs to be when choosing a judge that won't upset our corporate masters.
equals "letter of the law." Sounds good to me. When to we begin torture prosecutions?
Fordham Law Class Collects Personal Info About Scalia; Supreme Court Justice Is Steamed:
http://www.abajournal.com/weekly/fordham_law_...
Hatch thinks Obama will want to pick someone who "takes sides."
Guess what, senator: taking sides is what judges do.
Dumbazz.
If you wanted conservative judges you should have won the election.
The only "activist" judges Oral Hatch likes are ones like Scalia who bends the law to fit his particular quirk of the moment.
What a remarkable guy! Hatch broke the Code............... whew!
As the CODE BREAKER, IS OLD MAN, HATCH, THE NEW GOP LEADER?
ROFL
Uh, Oh, Pat. Those words you used to explain Obama's position are code words for "too much empathy". It's time for the Democratic nominee to use Rethuglican tactics during the confirmation hearings, just like Alito and Roberts did.
RATIONALIZELIE.Specter is lucky the only qualifications for a Senate seat are the following:
Must be at least 30 years old.
Be a U S citizen for at least 9 years.
Live in the state that they represent.
Looks like almost everyone qualifies to be a Senator. A US citizen for at least 9 years, who lived in the home state, and was at least 30 years old qualifies to run for the Senate. Does that mean so-called US homegrown terrorists like abortion-clinic bombers and abortion doctor killers could become a US Senator?
That's it, oh I forgot a good line of BS to snowjob the voters!
For such a privileged job Senator, it sure looks like the little senatorial world that you live in could care less what kind of dirt-bag could buy themselves a seat in the Senate!
How is it that I've suggested Gore for Supreme Court, 2X, yet that comment never gets posted??? What's the suppression of Al Gore doing here???
Elections have consequences.....
There are no more activist judges than the ones that were in the majority that put Bush into office.
How ridiculous is it that empathy, something every human needs more of, becomes a disqualifier in the eyes of Republicans.
Here is a list of several court cases where empathy could have made a world of difference.
http://progressnotcongress.org/blog/?p=731
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