[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 11842]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      POLITICALLY CORRECT JUSTICE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Poe) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, the President has made it clear that 
his pick for Justice of the Supreme Court will be different than all 
others who have previously served. He has said that the new Justice 
``will have empathy and understanding for people,'' ``that the person 
realizes justice isn't about some abstract law theory,'' but how 
decisions ``will affect the daily reality of people's lives.''
  He has also seemed to indicate he wants someone that isn't so 
indoctrinated with constitutional thought or beholding to the 
technicalities of the Declaration of Independence.
  The new President has said he wants a Justice with the ``heart to 
recognize what it's like to be a young teenager mom, empathy to 
understand what it's like to be poor or a minority, gay or disabled or 
old.''
  Then he also said this week, ``The quality of empathy of 
understanding and identifying with people's hopes and struggles is an 
essential ingredient for arriving at just doctrines and outcomes.''
  Sounds like, to me, a good career move for Dr. Phil or someone like 
him that deals only with emotions.
  And why is this comment about outcome so important? Does the 
President think the new Justice should reach certain social activist 
decisions by any means necessary, regardless of the law and the 
evidence? Seems like the President wants a Justice that will treat 
people differently, depending on who they are, rather than treat them 
all equally.
  I thought judges were to make judgments based on facts and the law; 
at least that's what I thought and did for 22 years as a judge in 
Texas. Judges are not to make decisions based on their own personal, 
social or political agenda for the masses.
  Also, I haven't heard the President mention that it's an important 
requirement for him that the new Justice follow the spirit and the 
letter of the Constitution.
  And, of course, rumors abound that the new pick will be a woman, 
someone from the President's hometown of Chicago, a minority, a 
liberal, or one with political loyalty to the President. Only the 
President knows this answer.
  Also, does the President only want a politically correct judge or 
Justice that correctly judges the Constitution? It appears to me that 
the new Justice should be qualified as a constitutional scholar that 
believes in upholding the sanctity of the words of the Constitution, 
rather than someone that just has empathy or a social or political 
agenda they want impose on the whole Nation.
  The new Justice should seek justice first and foremost, because 
justice is what we do in this country. After all, here is the oath the 
Supreme Court Justice will take: ``I solemnly swear that I will 
administer justice without respect to persons and do equal right to 
poor and rich and I will faithfully and impartially discharge and 
perform all the duties incumbent upon me as a Justice of the Supreme 
Court--under the Constitution and laws of the United States. So help me 
God.''
  Sounds like the Justice takes an oath to uphold the Constitution and 
the law of the land. Hopefully the change in the Supreme Court will 
bring in a Justice that follows this oath and not someone who is a 
political operative that will use their position to impose outcome-
based justice.
  After all, the words of the Constitution still should mean something, 
even to Members of the Supreme Court, but we shall see.
  And that's just the way it is.

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