United StatesLeading With Your Head and Heart
JUNE 4, 2009, 1:00 am
There has been a lot of conversation lately about how the ability to identify with another person's circumstance makes one unqualified to wear the judicial robe. Since President Obama's nomination of Judge Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, the word empathy has taken a beating. The other day, Dick Cheney came out in support of gay marriage, stating "freedom means freedom for everyone"aI guess Cheney finally allowed himself to share the empathy he felt for his daughter with the rest of the country. But why should it be acceptable to only show empathy to those we are closest to? Empathy should not be considered a hindrance to fair and balanced judgment.
Just because Judge Sotomayor feels empathetic does not mean she doesn't believe in the Constitution and carrying out the rule of law. It is the absence of empathy in our country's elected and appointed leaders that we should fear. Because of empathetic judges we have rulings like Brown vs. the Board of Education and Gideon vs. Wainwright. It took Justices with heart and conviction to change course, put an end to Jim Crow and insert real justice into American society. The documents drafted by our Founding Fathers have grown organically and adapted over the course of our country's history, giving women the right to vote and ending legal racial segregation as examples. As we now embark upon the new civil rights battle of the 21st century with gay rights, we can only hope that our justices will rule using both their heads and their hearts. Smart well-intentioned people can and should be able to do both.
Just because Judge Sotomayor feels empathetic does not mean she doesn't believe in the Constitution and carrying out the rule of law. It is the absence of empathy in our country's elected and appointed leaders that we should fear. Because of empathetic judges we have rulings like Brown vs. the Board of Education and Gideon vs. Wainwright. It took Justices with heart and conviction to change course, put an end to Jim Crow and insert real justice into American society. The documents drafted by our Founding Fathers have grown organically and adapted over the course of our country's history, giving women the right to vote and ending legal racial segregation as examples. As we now embark upon the new civil rights battle of the 21st century with gay rights, we can only hope that our justices will rule using both their heads and their hearts. Smart well-intentioned people can and should be able to do both.
Comments for this Statement
Re: Leading With Your Head and Heart
Sotomayor is our first Latina Supreme Court Justice as confirmed by the US Senate today. And miraculously,Senator Lindsey Graham from my home state voted for her. This gives me hope!
Re: Leading With Your Head and Heart
I can only pray that the other Justices have some since empathy. The right has a new one to beat up on Empathy, I guess they are tired of beating up on the word Liberal. As though either could ever be a dirty word. I get the most disturbed when liberal progressive politicians feel a need to respond to the right in a defensive way that they are either. I will be forever bewildered that somehow only the right are good religious folk, either Christian or Jew. I take great offense that somehow they have taken ownership of religion in America. But it is us that have let them. We apologize for defending a woman's right to choose, we apologize for supporting gay rights, we somehow apologize way too often to them. I make no apology to the right. Frankly in my mind they have given religion a bad name. I agree that it has taken brave judicial spirit to rule on Brown vs the Board of Education, Gideon vs Wainwright forever changing the course of civil rights. One argument the most astonishes me is that somehow we defend the court for changing laws that allow the majority to diminish the rights of any minority. When the CA Ct ruled for Prop 8 that was the one thing that most shocked me was that the court didn't even think of it. For decades we allowed the majority to diminish an entire race as human, women as property. It was the court (I guess they were all activists courts) to change the course of blacks and women in American.
Wayne
Re: Leading With Your Head and Heart
Mrs. Brolin,
Your words ring true.
Re: Leading With Your Head and Heart
If empathy is such a distraction to the judicial system, why do we solicit victim impact statements? These certainly create empathy for the victims and are an integral part of the sentencing phase. Victim impacts are based on loss, including emotional losses of loved ones. In order to understand a defendants "state of mind", which is routinely vetted in a court of law, doesn't empathy play a role. It is clear that this word was used as a battering ram against the judge because they were unable to find fault in her 17 years on the federal bench. Our new Supreme Court Justice will use all of her senses and her mind in the multi-faceted process of a trial, and then she will properly apply the law as is her duty, as is her proven record.