Supreme Court choices already political

OPINION:

Selection of a Supreme Court justice is political and both Republicans and Democrats choose nominees based on their best idea of how the person will adjudicate cases (“Sen. Susan Collins: Biden pledge to name Black woman to Supreme Court will politicize institution,” Web, Jan. 30). Once the Senate confirms, the justice is supposed to render decisions based solely on the Constitution and precedents. In other words, he or she is meant to decide without adherence to personal political preferences. In general the justices adhere to that guideline, but in cases wherein a decision will impact society in an outsize manner, the court divides into two major groups informed by political preference. The liberal group visualizes penumbras from the Constitution that the conservative group doesn’t see. In other words, conservative flights of judicial fancy are more constrained than liberal journeys into progressive shadows.

In a country of more than 300 million people, there are highly qualified Black and white men and women of various ethnic groups, religions and sexual orientations, so the court of last resort can be filled with justices who represent the panoply of our raucous society. President Biden’s mistake was announcing prematurely that he would appoint a Black female if an opening came up. While identity politics is abhorrent to a majority of Americans, his choice of a legally qualified Black female is not.

PAUL BLOUSTEIN

Cincinnati