I’m listening to Sen. Hatch (R-UT) browbeating Judge Sotomayor on the Ricci case. And I’m reminded of the ever-present nature of the exchanges between senators and nominees in this exchanges — brain vs. brawn.
It’s not that senators are dumb. A lot of them are extremely sharp. But certainly not all of them. And more to the point, with all but a few exceptions, they are at best amateurs at judicial interpretation. On the other hand, across the ideological spectrum, the Supreme Court nominees are almost without exception, extremely bright people, trained in a discipline that sharpens the skills of logical reasoning and argument. And they really, really know constitutional law. I would almost say this is a big shortcoming of our current system. I don’t think there’s any question that a number of great Justices from earlier in the 20th century never would have made it on today’s court.
In any case, on almost every front of intellect and knowledge, the judges have the senators wildly overmatched. And yet, the senators have the power.
It was hard to listen to Hatch’s questioning without this coming painfully to mind, though certainly it’s applied to many judges and senators, of all different partisan mixes over the years.
And speaking of amateurs vs. pros, for more expert Sotomayor hearing blog, don’t miss Andrew Pincus’s live blog here.
