McCain and Judicial Nominees

In his own words, John McCain tells us what his judicial philosophy is. I am struck with how the current president and John McCain really do speak in code. He never uses the word abortion yet there is no doubt that the primary purpose of this speech is to ensure that he will appoint the same kind of judges that have approved bans on some abortions. Instead he uses more widely agreed upon examples of undesirable decisions like the following:

A local government seized the private property of an American citizen. It gave that property away to a private developer. And this power play actually got the constitutional “thumbs-up” from five m embers of the Supreme Court.

And then there’s this knock on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals:

Then there was the case of the man in California who filed a suit against the entire United States Congress, which I guess made me a defendant too. This man insisted that the words “Under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance violated his rights under the establishment clause of the First Amendment. The Ninth Circuit court agreed, as it usually does when litigious people seek to rid our country of any trace of religious devotion.

John McCain cannot be more specific when he says:

I have my own standards of judicial ability, experience, philosophy, and temperament. And Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito meet those standards in every respect. They would serve as the model for my own nominees if that responsibility falls to me.

There probably isn’t a person out there who isn’t disappointed in our Supreme Court in some way although those ways may be drastically different, but I think the above shows McCain’s willingness to continue the tradition that George W. Bush has set — however favorably or unfavorably you think that tradition may be.