Uh oh, what if you’re a home owner renting a house. Suddenly, the family in YOUR house can’t make the rent. You try to have them removed so you can rent the house. The renters refuse to budge. You’re frantic. Your whole cash flow situation is in jeopardy while you try to juggle payments waiting on the back rent and new tenants.
Finally, you end up with the tenants in court. There, a judge appointed by the Dear Leader will hear the case. No problem you have a rental agreement signed by the tenants and they have no evidence of payment, so it should be pretty open and shut.
But the judge is not interested in any of that legal stuff. He’s interested in the color of your skin and the color of the tenant’s skin. He’s interested in how much money you make and how much the tenants don’t. The judge is interested in where you went to college and why the tenants didn’t. He’s interested in what kind of car you drive and how far the tenants have to walk to catch the bus. It’s called empathy.
Empathy? Do they even have classes on “empathy” at all of these top flight law schools? I thought empathy was what you looked for in a partner, priest, social worker and doctor. Fairness and equal application of the law are traits I’d look for in a judge not empathy. A court case isn't supposed to be a "Queen for a Day" reality show where the person who tells the saddest story wins.
The Dear Leader let slip while explaining to us mere mortals what he’d look for in a judge to replace Souter on the Supreme Court that the long held judicial philosophy of “empathy” will be a key factor in choosing the next dope to wear a black robe on the Supreme Court. Empathy, and the color of the person’s skin, the sex of the person, the person’s religion, - you know all the key things in judging these days when the actual fair and equal application of law is an after thought.
As an empathetically challenged person my self – one who neither garners nor gives empathy easily – I have to worry about this. It would seem that if I’m mugged by an inner city youth down on his luck, the judge is just as likely to look at me and say, “Mr. Lex, the administration and I would like to thank you for spreading your wealth around to these poor inner city youth” as to lock the thug up. And in the case with the rent, the judge seems likely as not to say, “How dare you Mr. Lex! You’re taking advantage of these poor people. I order you to turn the deed of the house over to the tenants forth with. Have you no empathy?!”
So fairness and equal justice under the law are out and empathy is in. That’s change we can believe in. I guess the Dear Leader will have to find an artesian who can artfully chisel the blindfold away from Lady Justice’s eyes and move her hand to place a thumb on one side of the scales of justice, because that is what judicial empathy will look like.
Finally, you end up with the tenants in court. There, a judge appointed by the Dear Leader will hear the case. No problem you have a rental agreement signed by the tenants and they have no evidence of payment, so it should be pretty open and shut.
But the judge is not interested in any of that legal stuff. He’s interested in the color of your skin and the color of the tenant’s skin. He’s interested in how much money you make and how much the tenants don’t. The judge is interested in where you went to college and why the tenants didn’t. He’s interested in what kind of car you drive and how far the tenants have to walk to catch the bus. It’s called empathy.
Empathy? Do they even have classes on “empathy” at all of these top flight law schools? I thought empathy was what you looked for in a partner, priest, social worker and doctor. Fairness and equal application of the law are traits I’d look for in a judge not empathy. A court case isn't supposed to be a "Queen for a Day" reality show where the person who tells the saddest story wins.
The Dear Leader let slip while explaining to us mere mortals what he’d look for in a judge to replace Souter on the Supreme Court that the long held judicial philosophy of “empathy” will be a key factor in choosing the next dope to wear a black robe on the Supreme Court. Empathy, and the color of the person’s skin, the sex of the person, the person’s religion, - you know all the key things in judging these days when the actual fair and equal application of law is an after thought.
As an empathetically challenged person my self – one who neither garners nor gives empathy easily – I have to worry about this. It would seem that if I’m mugged by an inner city youth down on his luck, the judge is just as likely to look at me and say, “Mr. Lex, the administration and I would like to thank you for spreading your wealth around to these poor inner city youth” as to lock the thug up. And in the case with the rent, the judge seems likely as not to say, “How dare you Mr. Lex! You’re taking advantage of these poor people. I order you to turn the deed of the house over to the tenants forth with. Have you no empathy?!”
So fairness and equal justice under the law are out and empathy is in. That’s change we can believe in. I guess the Dear Leader will have to find an artesian who can artfully chisel the blindfold away from Lady Justice’s eyes and move her hand to place a thumb on one side of the scales of justice, because that is what judicial empathy will look like.
1 comment:
My emathetic nominee is Harriet Ellan Miers. Miers entered Southern Methodist University intending to become a teacher. The economic plight of her family was so dire that she almost dropped out in her freshman year, but she was able to find part-time work that put her through college. Then her father had a debilitating stroke. Miers graduated from Southern Methodist University with a bachelor's degree in mathematics (1967) and from its Law School with a Juris Doctor degree (1970.In 1986, Miers became the first female president of the Dallas Bar Association. In 1992, Miers became the first woman to head the State Bar of Texas. She has also served as chair of the Board of Editors for the American Bar Association Journal and as the chair of the ABA's "Commission on Multi-Jurisdictional Practice". While head of the State Bar of Texas, Miers joined an unsuccessful effort to have the American Bar Association maintain its then-official position of neutrality on abortion. The ABA had adopted abortion neutrality at its 1990 annual meeting in Chicago. As to the Supreme Court, then-Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada), recommended Miers as O'Connor's successor to Geroge Bush. On October 3, 2005, Bush nominated Miers to serve as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. In an unprecedented move, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter and ranking Democrat Patrick Leahy also requested that Miers re-do some of her answers to the questionnaire submitted to her by the Committee, noting that her responses were "inadequate," "insufficient," and "insulting" because she failed or refused to adequately answer various questions with acceptable accuracy or with sufficient detail.She withdrew her nomination. Talk about empathy, poor, fatherless, woman, harpooned by the Senate...she deserves another shot. The Griffin.
Post a Comment