Senate Debate on Empathy
=====================================
Christina Reiss
U.S. District Judge, District of Vermont
Nominated: October 13, 2009
ABA Rating: Unanimously Well Qualified
Committee Questionnaire
Hearing Date:
November 4, 2009
Questions For The Record
Reported By Committee:
Nov. 19, 2009
Confirmed By Senate: Nov. 21, 2009
20xx-xx-xx -
Committee Questionnaire - Christina Reiss
Responses of Christina Reiss
Nominee to the U.S. District Court for the District of Vermont
to the Written Questions of Senator Jeff Sessions
. As you may know, President Obama has described the types of judges that he will nominate to the federal bench as follows:
"We need somebody who’s got the heart, the empathy, to recognize what it’s like to be a young teenage mom. The empathy to understand what it’s
3
like to be poor, or African-American, or gay, or disabled, or old. And that’s the criteria by which I’m going to be selecting my judges."
a. Without commenting on what President Obama may or may not have meant by this statement, what is your opinion with respect to President Obama’s criteria for federal judges, as described in his quote?
Response: A judge must never forget that it is not cases, pleadings, papers, and matters that come before the judge but real people with real rights and interests at stake. The standard of "empathy" whereby a judge understands that he or she is making rulings that impact the lives of real people is one that I share as it ensures that a judge will be prompt, thorough, and careful in his or her decision-making. In making those rulings, however, the rule of law and not the judge’s personal feelings towards the litigants and their backgrounds determines the outcome.
b. In your opinion, do you fit President Obama’s criteria for federal judges, as described in the quote?
Response: I take my role as a judge very seriously. I strive to treat the individuals before me and their claims with all the fairness, impartiality and thoughtfulness that I would desire and expect with regard to my own rights and interests. I believe I show "empathy" as described by President Obama by recognizing that the cases that come before me are not a series of intellectual questions but are individuals and entities seeking an adjudication of their disputes.
c. During her confirmation hearings, Justice Sotomayor rejected President Obama’s so-called "empathy standard" stating, "We apply the law to facts. We don’t apply feelings to facts." Do you agree with Justice Sotomayor?
Response: Yes.
d. What role do you believe that empathy should play in a judge’s consideration of a case?
Response: Judicial decisions must be devoid of the judge’s personal feelings, biases, and opinions.
e. Do you think that it’s ever proper for judges to indulge their own subjective sense of empathy in determining what the law means?
Response: A judge should never make a judicial decision based upon his or her personal feelings regarding a litigant, an issue, a law, or a fact pattern.
i. If so, under what circumstances?
Response: See above.
ii. Please identify any cases in which you’ve done so.
Response: I do not believe I have ever done this.
iii. If not, please discuss an example of a case where you have had to set aside your own subjective sense of empathy and rule based solely on the law.
Response: In presiding over juvenile protection cases, I have been called upon to remove children from parents who genuinely love their children but who are unable to adequately care for them at even a minimal standard of care, or to protect them from physical, sexual, or emotional abuse from a third party. I understand that my rulings in these very difficult cases are likely to cause both parent and child real suffering and grief. I have nonetheless followed Vermont’s juvenile code in making these determinations.