Exactly What are the Qualifications of a Justice?

All I have heard on the news today is commentary on President Obama’s nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. While some sources offer evidence based criticism or support of her nomination that relates to the role she will have as a judge, the majority of the coverage I have seen have focused on her ethnicity, her socioeconomic background, or her general political views.

What I do not understand is what these things have to do with how Judge Sotomayor will perform as a justice of the Supreme Court. I have heard arguments that her unique background will give her empathy to underrepresented groups and that the fact that she is a Latina marks a step forward for minorities, but these arguments fail to deal with the real question: Will she do her job well? In order to address this question, as well as demonstrate the irrelevance of the aforementioned arguments, we must remind ourselves of the role of a Supreme Court Justice.

The principle responsibility of Supreme Court Justices is to rule on the constitutionality of currently enforced law. It is not their role to recommend, mandate, endorse, or otherwise influence policy, at least not through their formal position (it is another matter entirely for them to act on their political views when they are not on the bench). As a contrast, it is the role of elected politicians to influence the development and implementation of policy. The last thing I want is a justice who seeks to influence policy through the judicial structure. The result would be a breach of the separation of powers which is one of our most valuable lines of protection from the whims of individual politicians who are thinking more about their career than what is best for the country.

Evaluating Politicians on Economics

With the current financial downturn it is impossible to escape the subject of the economy. Every time I pick up a newspaper, turn on the television, or join my colleges for a discussion by the water cooler I hear differing opinions on what the current administration should (or should not) be doing to fix the problem. Unfortunately the vast majority of the population is ignorant of even the most basic economic principles leaving us unable to evaluate what the elites in Washington are doing. This problem is compounded by the fact that the vast majority of literature in economics is laden with graphs, statistics and jargon that we neither have the time nor the desire to sift through in order to rectify our current lack of knowledge.

Fortunately there are economists like Thomas Sowell of the Hoover Institution who boil away the broth so that the rest of us can grade the economic policies of current and prospective political leaders. In this recent interview Sowell briefly touches on some of the themes discussed in his works.

Three of his books I highly recommend are Basic Economics, Economic Facts and Fallacies, and The Housing Boom and Bust. The first is an overview of the field of economics stripped of all jargon and graphs. The second details some of the largest economic fallacies perpetuated by those in power and the effect that these fallacies have on us when they are not checked, and the final book is a niche work on the current financial situation that we are in.

In the Beginning

This is the beginning and like any good beginning it should accomplish two goals: acquiring readers with a clever "hook" and laying out a framework for what the author seeks to accomplish. This is true regardless of whether it is a book, a film, or in this case, a blog. If I have not sufficiently accomplished the first goal I hope you will bear with me as I take a stab at the second.

As a researcher of political behavior I am always astounded with the vast amounts of misinformation, name-calling, rhetoric, and bold faced lies that convolute our political system and increase the difficulty involved in selecting the candidate who will receive our coveted votes. I have created this blog not only to post facts concerning politicians and the policies that they plan to enact, but also to document and explain the strategies they are using and why they work. My intention is that this information can then be used to inoculate ourselves from the forked tounges of wiley persuaders and make our stand in the election booth armed and ready.

In the course of this project I hope to correspond with many of you as I know I can learn as much from you and you can learn from me. I will be posting links to others that are far wiser than myself, and in the future I will begin posting original research I have conducted on politics as they relate. I will end with a brief quote from former mayor of New York Rudy Guiliani: "Begin with the end in mind". Indeed.