Senate Debate on Empathy
=====================================
Tanya W. Pratt
U.S. District Judge, South Dist. of Indiana
Nominated: January 20, 2010
ABA Rating: Substantial Majority Well Qualified, Minority
Qualified
Committee Questionnaire
Hearing Date:
February 11, 2010
Questions For The Record
Reported By Committee:
March 4, 2010
Confirmed By Senate:
20xx-xx-xx
- Committee Questionnaire - Tanya Pratt
http://judiciary.senate.gov/nominations/111thCongressJudicialNominations/upload/TanyaPratt-QFRs.pdf
Responses of Judge Tanya Walton Pratt
Nominee to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana
To the Written Questions of Senator Jeff Sessions
3. 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 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. While I understand that you cannot know what President Obama may or may not have meant by this statement, do you believe that you fit President Obama’s criteria for federal judges, as described in his quote?
Response: I do not know if I fit the criteria described by President in the above quote. However, when nominated, President Obama stated he believed I represented "some of the best in American jurisprudence" and that I would "serve the American people with integrity." If confirmed, I will strive be fair and impartial and to treat all litigants with respect and dignity, regardless of their background or station in life.
b. What role do you believe that empathy should play in a judge’s consideration of a case?
Response: Empathy should not play a role in a judge’s consideration of a case.
c. 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: No. It is never proper for judges to indulge their own subjective sense of empathy in determining what the law means. In determining what the law means, a judge must look to precedent cases and applicable statutes and apply the law to the facts.
i. If so, under what circumstances?
Response: No circumstances.
ii. Please identify any cases in which you have done so.
Response: None
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 contested adoption cases and termination of parental rights matters, I have had to set aside my subjective sense of empathy for parents who may be struggling to care for their children, but are unable to do so; and rule based solely on the law. In each case in which I participate, I
provide the parties with a neutral and impartial decision and empathy plays no role.