We have an opening coming on the Supreme Court and President Obama repeated his campaign promise that empathywill be key to his choice of a replacement for Justice Souter. We value empathy in our personal relationships. It is part of what makes us human and anyone without empathy is very ill. But is empathy something we should highly value in a Supreme Court Justice? Do we want Supreme Court Justices deciding cases based on empathy or the law? In fact, don’t we want just the opposite–someone who will apply the law regardless of his or her personal feelings about a party? It is the role of a judge to exercise dispassionate justice, not empathize with the parties.
Filed under: Current Events, Viewpoints
