Obama Judges & Duke lacrosse

In his most recent column Hoover Institution senior fellow Thomas Sowell says - - -

… One of the biggest and most long-lasting "change" to expect if Barack Obama becomes President of the United States is in the kinds of federal judges he appoints. These include Supreme Court justices, as well as other federal justices all across the country, all of whom will have lifetime tenure.

Senator Obama has stated very clearly what kinds of Supreme Court justices he wants— those with "the empathy to understand what it's like to be poor, or African-American, or gay, or disabled, or old."

Like so many things that Obama says, it may sound nice if you don't stop and think— and chilling if you do stop and think. Do we really want judges who decide cases based on who you are, rather than on the facts and the law?

If the case involves a white man versus a black woman, should the judge decide that case differently than if both litigants are of the same race or sex?

The kind of criteria that Barack Obama promotes could have gotten three young men at Duke University sent to prison for a crime that neither they nor anybody else committed.

Didn't we spend decades in America, and centuries in Western civilization, trying to get away from the idea that who you are determines what your legal rights are? …

Sowell’s entire column’s here.

Sowell was among first pundits to question and expose the Duke/Durham frame-up attempt targeting three clearly innocent members of Duke’s lacrosse team.

From Sowell’s Apr. 25, 2006 column - - -

… Media irresponsibility is one thing. Irresponsibility by an agent of the law is something else — and much more dangerous.

Prosecutors are not just supposed to prosecute. They are supposed to prosecute the right people in the right way. In this case, prosecutor Michael Nifong has proceeded in the wrong way. …

If the young men accused of rape are in fact guilty, they need to be proved guilty because they are guilty, not because an election is coming up or there is racial hype in the media or a legally stacked deck.

More important, we need to know that the rule of law is there for all of us, regardless of who we are or who our accuser might be.

Even beyond this case, we are increasingly becoming a society in which some people are allowed to impose high costs on other people at little or no cost to themselves. This sets the stage for extortion, not only of money but also of legal plea-bargains extorted by ambitious prosecutors.

The stripper, for example, does not even pay the price of having her name known, while the names and pictures of the accused young men are all over the media. Even if they are acquitted, or the charges thrown out of court, this case will follow them and they will be under a cloud for the rest of their lives …

Sowell’s entire 4/25/06 column’s here. It’s titled "Law or Lynch Law."

Comments:

Reliance on race-blind, gender-blind, class-blind treatment is the goal of our law-enforcement and justice systems.

Nifong, his co-framers and their enablers ignored that. Instead they invoked race, gender and class prejudices to advance and justify their frame-up attempt. Let the poor black woman have her chance to present her case in court against those white, wealthy males.

It’s disturbing here in Durham to read and hear from so many of the very people who enabled the frame-up attempt and justified its appeal to prejudices their enthusiastic endorsements of Sen. Obama because, among other reasons, they say he shares their ideas of “law enforcement” and “justice.”

Even more disturbing is learning from newspaper accounts and those people themselves that Obama has promised them the kind of judges and justices they want.

And it’s not only here in North Carolina that Obama’s making that promise.

Obama’s promise to appoint Supreme Court justices and federal judges with "the empathy to understand what it's like to be poor, or African-American, or gay, or disabled, or old" is now an applause line in his standard stump speech.

My thanks go to Thomas Sowell for letting us know what we’re in for if Obama gets to appoint federal judges and justices during the next for years.