Legal Commentary

What Makes A Judicial Decision Controversial?

By Big Tent Democrat

I owe Stuart Taylor. Jr. some post time on the torture issue, and eventually I will get to that. But in the meantime, Scott Lemieux, via Atrios, demonstrates how Mr. Taylor views issues through a conservative prism, despite his claim to being a "moderate" (hey, we all do it, I call myself a "centrist"):

[Quoting Taylor]"...the Republicans could bleed him some politically if he made an exceptionally controversial pick such as Sonia Sotomayor, a federal appeals court judge based in New York." Exceptionally controversial? . . . Whose record is, as far as I can tell, if anything more moderate than other frontrunners like Wood and Kagan?

. . . [S]o the shocking news is that Sotomayor issues a plausible, mainstream liberal vote in an affirmative action case, one plausible enough to get 4 votes at the Supreme Court. But...with a good whack! I doubt it will be as good a wack as the Casey plurality gave then-Judge Alito's claim that states could force women to notify their husbands before seeking an abortion, but funny, I don't recall Taylor talking about what a political disaster that would be for Bush.

Stuart Taylor, Jr. is a conservative. In some ways, an extreme conservative. Nothing wrong with that. I enjoy reading Ed Whelan myself. But it is important that we get truth in labelling on Taylor. Whenever reading him, everyone should remember that. Especially in the Traditional Media.

For the record, my favorite candidates for the SCOTUS are Cabranes and Kagan.

Speaking for me only

Full post as published by TalkLeft on May 04, 2009 (boomark / email).