Posted by
NOTLEGALROADKILLYET on Wednesday, August 23, 2006 9:20:41 PM
At one time, Professor Lawrence Tribe appears to have considered himself a serious candidate for a slot on the US Supreme Court. At least, he acted the part, making almost weekly appearances on various television shows. If either Reagan or Bush had lost, this post might very well be about "Justice" Tribe.
Every potential Federal Judge has prime appointment years. If a President wants to impact the judiciary over a period of decades, he must appoint Judges and Justices who are young enough to have a long life expectancy. If an otherwise outstanding candidate happens to come into his prime appointment years when his party is out of power, he is likely never to be appointed.
In Tribe's case, we can thank the Lord for small favors.
His view of the law is that a jurist should first determine the outcome, and then look for legal arguments which support that outcome.
He finds it very hard to be critical of a judge who couldn't find those arguments but did manage to get to the "correct shore."
"But as legal academics many of us -- and I don't exclude myself from this observation -- sometimes miss the forest for the trees and act as though making an argument water-tight is more important than steering the legal boat in the right direction, much less reaching the correct shore."
I well remember the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings of last fall and spring where liberal Senator after liberal Senator worshiped at the altar of stare decisis. Supposedly, no man is qualified to be a Supreme Court Justice unless he first acknowledges the ultimate and final power of precedent. That, it seems, is the standard for conservatives.
Tribe is quite honest in admitting that the standard for liberal jurists is very different. He spent needless time and effort writing his piece when he could have as easily said "the law is what we liberals say it is, when we say it, precedent be damned, and don't criticize us."
The reason a Harvarrrd Law Professor can spout this kind of bogus and dangerous garbage without fear of criticism or discipline is that ABA lawyers control the legal ethics system, and the ABA is dominated by the left.