SUPREME COURT PICKS

The speculations in print over who is on the short list for the Supreme Court reminds me of the buzz over papal prospects. In any event, they are worth reading if for no other reason than to glean the MSM's longing that Bush will appoint a justice to their (liberal) liking. The Virginian Pilot ran a front-page article on favorite-son J. Harvie Wilkinson, III, a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, former editorial page editor for the paper, law school professor, and Reagan appointee to the court of appeals. The Pilot longs for a nominee in the O'Connor/Lewis Powell mold, baby-splitters whose decisions often wound up promulgating a three-part test to whatever the issue at hand happened to be. Such jurisprudence inevitably fails to produce settled law and too often puts the courts in the position of making policy decisions better left to the political branches. As for Judge Wilkinson, he is in the Powell mold only in the sense that he is the consummate Southern gentleman. His published decisions reflect a consistently conservative judicial philosophy closer to Scalia than O'Connor. Wilkinson has the added benefit of being a Virginian, which makes it a bit more difficult for Gang of 14 sellout John Warner to oppose the "nuclear option" should it come to it.

DISSENTING OPINION FROM JUDGE STEVE DE LLAMABUTCHER: If merit were a factor, Judge Wilkinson would be Chief Justice of the United States. He's a great jurist.

And The Tempting of America was a flaccid piece of post-hoc rationalization.

REBUTTAL: Thank you Steve-O. I agree that Wilkinson should be chief justice but must repectfully disagree with your characterization of Bork's book. While his account of the nomination is important, the real value of the book is his treatment of original intent and the importance of it in judicial philosophy. Original intent is a prudential doctrine every bit as important as standing, ripeness, mootness, actual case or controversy which operate as checks on the exercise of judicial power. Judging without any anchor in the intent of the framer or the legislator is little more than exercise of judicial fiat. (Too few people realize "fiat" comes the Latin meaning "I will it.")