Monday, March 28, 2005
With the so-called “nuclear option” being deliberated before Congress, the future of our country appears to lie within the hands of our elected officials. The nuclear option would lower the standards for the confirmation of federal judges, including Supreme Court Justices. This poses a threat not only to our immediate well-being as a whole, but also to the rule of law in the future of our country.
The president of the United States, with the approval of the Senate, appoints federal judges. Article III judges, which include the Supreme Court, the Federal Court of Appeals, district courts and the U.S. Court of International Trade, are the federal judges appointed by the President.
Currently, the Senate must approve a judicial appointment with a majority vote, which equals 60 votes. With the proposed nuclear option, however, this is lowered to 51 percent, or 51 votes. Thus, the confirmation of judges could become subject to the tyranny of a slight political majority, Republican or Democratic, in the Senate.
In an ideal society, judges are to be free of political will and/or influence. Traditionalists argue that elected officials, such as senators and representatives, should respond to the political will of society, endorsing and rejecting laws according to the attitude of the citizens of their respective region. However, judges should be free of this influence for an array of reasons.
Judges are seen as the experts of the law who decide how the content of any given law may be interpreted. If judges were to be swayed by political influence, laws could become subordinate to the desires or whims of a political, economic, ethnic and/or religious majority. Let it be known I am not naively denying that this sort of political bias exists within our judicial system. However, I am arguing that lowering the standards of judicial nominations will surely augment this problem.
The clause that determines the nomination process of federal judges lies within the greatest social contract of all, the U.S. Constitution. Brilliantly recognizing its own imperfection, the Constitution contains amendments, which allow for the alteration and or addition of rights to this document, according to the changing political desires of the agents within the community.
Yet unlawful modification of the document can lead to instability and the inability to recognize the rule of law.
In the beginning of “Meditation XVII,” John Donne makes an eternal and altruistic statement regarding his ideas for the relations between human agents:
“No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less...any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind...”
Dismissing the threat of the nuclear option would be to disregard the equality of all individuals under the law. Individuals should concern themselves with the equality for all individuals under the law, including the rights and privileges any social contract grants these agents. It is important to remember that our system of law does not ensure substantive justice for all; rather, it does its best in preserving the equality of rights and privileges for each individual under the law. Yet ignoring the legal injustices surrounding any political environment would be turning a blind eye to the political death of an individual, as it were, within the aforesaid community.
Sikes is a Wichita senior in Spanish and philosophy.Vacancies in Student Senate Court of Appeals
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