Legal News

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Justice Anthony Kennedy decried the way some senators question Supreme Court nominees, defended President Barack Obama's pursuit of empathetic judges and rebutted the idea of activist courts in a speech...Kennedy said the Senate should not try to determine how high court nominee Elena Kagan would rule on specific issues, but should focus broadly on whether she has the qualities of a good judge... The president drew wide criticism from Republicans last year when he said Sonia Sotomayor would bring "empathy" to the bench. Critics said that meant judges could bring personal whims and prejudices, but Kennedy disagreed.  "You certainly can't formulate principles without being aware of where those principles will take you, what their consequences will be," he told an audience of about 750 at a joint meeting of the Forum Club of the Palm Beaches and the Palm Beach County Bar Association. "Law is a human exercise and if it ceases to be that it does not deserve the name law..."Kennedy, who was nominated to the court by President Ronald Reagan, also dismissed an oft-repeated Republican criticism of "activist judges."  "An activist court is a court that makes a decision you don't like," he said...