Mister Roberts
This past afternoon, Chief Justice nominee John Roberts had his confirmation hearings begin. From the transcripts, Mr. Roberts gave an introduction more like Mr. Rogers than what is normally seen from a nominee. I guess that will have to wait until the question and answer sessions over the next few days.
Judge Roberts, in his remarks, made the comment that he saw the role of the judiciary like the role of an umpire in baseball. They don't make the rules, they make sure they are applied properly. As a baseball fan, I can state categorically that this is not true. Umpires in fact MAKE rules, starting with the very most fundamental, balls and strikes. The baseball rule book says to be counted as a strike, the batter can to do a variety of things, but more importantly, it describes where that strike zone is.
For those who don't know baseball, the rule book definition for the strike zone is, laterally the area in a column above the plate, with the bottom plane at the batter's knees and the upper plane at the letters of the uniform. This is not what any umpire in baseball calls. In reality, the strike zone is more from the bottom of the batter's calf to the top of his belt (for liberal umpires it would be the bellybutton) and extending laterally from the white part of the plate on the inside, to an inch or two off the black on the outside part of the plate.
The only part of how the rule is applied as compared to the rules, is that the ball needs to be in the area of the plate.
In constitutional terms, the stike zone as called is sort of like the right to privacy. It's not actually in the rule book, but it is understood that we have a right to not have the police hanging over our shoulder when we do something like espouse our views that the war in Iraq is a clusterfuck. Mr. Roberts had best come up with a better answer on this one. Judges, like umpires, sometimes have make decisions on things outside the rules. It is a fact of life.
If Judge Roberts is confirmed, and I expect he will be, he will need to do better than his comments today.
Judge Roberts, in his remarks, made the comment that he saw the role of the judiciary like the role of an umpire in baseball. They don't make the rules, they make sure they are applied properly. As a baseball fan, I can state categorically that this is not true. Umpires in fact MAKE rules, starting with the very most fundamental, balls and strikes. The baseball rule book says to be counted as a strike, the batter can to do a variety of things, but more importantly, it describes where that strike zone is.
For those who don't know baseball, the rule book definition for the strike zone is, laterally the area in a column above the plate, with the bottom plane at the batter's knees and the upper plane at the letters of the uniform. This is not what any umpire in baseball calls. In reality, the strike zone is more from the bottom of the batter's calf to the top of his belt (for liberal umpires it would be the bellybutton) and extending laterally from the white part of the plate on the inside, to an inch or two off the black on the outside part of the plate.
The only part of how the rule is applied as compared to the rules, is that the ball needs to be in the area of the plate.
In constitutional terms, the stike zone as called is sort of like the right to privacy. It's not actually in the rule book, but it is understood that we have a right to not have the police hanging over our shoulder when we do something like espouse our views that the war in Iraq is a clusterfuck. Mr. Roberts had best come up with a better answer on this one. Judges, like umpires, sometimes have make decisions on things outside the rules. It is a fact of life.
If Judge Roberts is confirmed, and I expect he will be, he will need to do better than his comments today.
posted by Mike N | 1:19 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home