Senate Debate on Empathy
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2010-05-14 - Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy talks about Empathy
 

Justice Kennedy pushes back against conservative media attacks on "empathy" and "activist judges"
"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."

Q: Can Empathy be perfectly excised from the Judiciary?

A: Anthony - No,... If lack of empathy means to close your eyes to the consequences of the laws decree, that's just silly. We supervise the criminal system. Our sentences are 8 times longer than sentences in England and Western Europe.  Winston Churchill said your society will be judged by how you treat the least deserving of your citizens. Of course empathy has a role.... You certainly formulate principles without being unaware of where those principles will take you and what their consequences will be in human terms... If cost is a way to activate human compassion, I'll take it.....

Q: One last empathy question if I may, does it ever worry you that empathy, while it's a necessary component of jurisprudence, could swing to far to the other side?
A: Of course, I tried to indicate,  if I feel so sad about this I'm going to change the law, no, the law has to have a stability... but as I tried to indicate, maybe not to well, we have to be aware of the consequences of our legal principles...