Senate Debate on Empathy
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Poe, Ted [R-TX]
2009-05-06
Text From the Congressional Record

Poe, Ted [R-TX]2009-05-06
Begin15:56:03

End15:59:29
Length00:03:26

Mr POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, the President has made it clear that his pick for Justice of the Supreme Court will be different than all others who have previously served. He has said that the new Justice ``will have empathy and understanding for people,'' ``that the person realizes justice isn't about some abstract law theory,'' but how decisions ``will affect the daily reality of people's lives.''

He has also seemed to indicate he wants someone that isn't so indoctrinated with constitutional thought or beholding to the technicalities of the Declaration of Independence.

The new President has said he wants a Justice with the ``heart to recognize what it's like to be a young teenager mom, empathy to understand what it's like to be poor or a minority, gay or disabled or old.''

Then he also said this week, ``The quality of empathy of understanding and identifying with people's hopes and struggles is an essential ingredient for arriving at just doctrines and outcomes.''

Sounds like, to me, a good career move for Dr. Phil or someone like him that deals only with emotions.
 

nd why is this comment about outcome so important? Does the President think the new Justice should reach certain social activist decisions by any means necessary, regardless of the law and the evidence? Seems like the President wants a Justice that will treat people differently, depending on who they are, rather than treat them all equally.

I thought judges were to make judgments based on facts and the law; at least that's what I thought and did for 22 years as a judge in Texas. Judges are not to make decisions based on their own personal, social or political agenda for the masses.

...

Also, does the President only want a politically correct judge or Justice that correctly judges the Constitution? It appears to me that the new Justice should be qualified as a constitutional scholar that believes in upholding the sanctity of the words of the Constitution, rather than someone that just has empathy or a social or political agenda they want impose on the whole Nation.

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Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, the President has made it clear that his pick for Justice of the Supreme Court will be different than all others who have previously served. He has said that the new Justice ``will have empathy and understanding for people,'' ``that the person realizes justice isn't about some abstract law theory,'' but how decisions ``will affect the daily reality of people's lives.''

He has also seemed to indicate he wants someone that isn't so indoctrinated with constitutional thought or beholding to the technicalities of the Declaration of Independence.

The new President has said he wants a Justice with the ``heart to recognize what it's like to be a young teenager mom, empathy to understand what it's like to be poor or a minority, gay or disabled or old.''

Then he also said this week, ``The quality of empathy of understanding and identifying with people's hopes and struggles is an essential ingredient for arriving at just doctrines and outcomes.''

Sounds like, to me, a good career move for Dr. Phil or someone like him that deals only with emotions.

And why is this comment about outcome so important? Does the President think the new Justice should reach certain social activist decisions by any means necessary, regardless of the law and the evidence? Seems like the President wants a Justice that will treat people differently, depending on who they are, rather than treat them all equally.

I thought judges were to make judgments based on facts and the law; at least that's what I thought and did for 22 years as a judge in Texas. Judges are not to make decisions based on their own personal, social or political agenda for the masses.

Also, I haven't heard the President mention that it's an important requirement for him that the new Justice follow the spirit and the letter of the Constitution.

And, of course, rumors abound that the new pick will be a woman, someone from the President's hometown of Chicago, a minority, a liberal, or one with political loyalty to the President. Only the President knows this answer.

Also, does the President only want a politically correct judge or Justice that correctly judges the Constitution? It appears to me that the new Justice should be qualified as a constitutional scholar that believes in upholding the sanctity of the words of the Constitution, rather than someone that just has empathy or a social or political agenda they want impose on the whole Nation.

The new Justice should seek justice first and foremost, because justice is what we do in this country. After all, here is the oath the Supreme Court Justice will take: ``I solemnly swear that I will administer justice without respect to persons and do equal right to poor and rich and I will faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all the duties incumbent upon me as a Justice of the Supreme Court--under the Constitution and laws of the United States. So help me God.''

Sounds like the Justice takes an oath to uphold the Constitution and the law of the land. Hopefully the change in the Supreme Court will bring in a Justice that follows this oath and not someone who is a political operative that will use their position to impose outcome-based justice.

After all, the words of the Constitution still should mean something, even to Members of the Supreme Court, but we shall see.

And that's just the way it is.
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