Legal Commentary

Obama's Win and Judges

By Jeralyn

People for the American Way writes that President-Elect Barack Obama's win yesterday brings a mandate on our federal judiciary:

Looking at yesterday’s results, it’s incontrovertible that the election delivered a sweeping mandate for President-elect Obama to appoint federal judges who are committed to core constitutional values: justice, equality, and opportunity for all. In the election the public rejected the efforts of the right wing to stack the federal courts with ideological jurists like Justices Scalia and Alito often called “strict constructionists.”

Obama's view of the courts: [More...]

When you look at what makes a great Supreme Court justice, it's not just the particular issue and how they rule, but it's their conception of the Court. And part of the role of the Court is that it is going to protect people who may be vulnerable in the political process: the outsider, the minority, those who are vulnerable, those who don’t have a lot of clout.”

Obama may have the ability to appoint three or more Supreme Court Justices and many more federal judges:

Given the results of yesterday’s election, we should expect President-elect Obama and the United States Senate to nominate and confirm judges who will defend our personal freedoms and ensure that every person has equal access to justice. The American people have asked them to do just that.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on November 05, 2008 (boomark / email).