The article excerpted below raises some interesting points about the historical backgrounds of the 108 total appointed Supreme Court Justices (yes, there have not been very many Supreme Court Justices since the founding of the USA - they serve for life, remember)

Apparently, some Republican and some Democratic leaders are calling for Bush to consider a non-judge for the O’Connor Supreme Court seat.

I have some reservations about that, because it’s helpful to see a nominee’s decision record to determine whether they are acceptable. If Bush appoints a non-judge, then the only thing we’ll have to go on is the fact that the person is a friend of the Republican political machine.

As a crusty old Federal Judge once said in a seminar I attended, “How’d we get to be judges? —- We sucked up to some politician!”

And so, the non-judge that Bush might consider will absolutely be someone who is a close friend of the Republican political machine. He or she might NOT have written much that is public record, so we will be left to speculate about his or her philosophy to some extent.

If the person nominated is a fundie, we might expect that person to vote on civil rights issues the way that Falwell and Robertson and Focus on the Family would want. That’s not a judicial philosphy, that’s just legislating one’s theocratic beliefs. Talk about activism!

In the article excerpted below, Rep. Senator Arlen Specter accuses judges of not leaving the courthouse often enough to stay in touch with the common people, so Bush should consider a non-judge.

Here’s two anecdotes for you, from my personal experience recently, to help show that Arlen Specter’s statement doesn’t make a lot of sense:

1) Yesterday, Sunday July 17, 2005, I ran into a Federal Judge at my boy’s athletic association. I was watching my boy’s baseball game. A sitting Federal Judge was also there, with his boy, apparently waiting for the judge’s boy’s game to start. The judge was just hanging around with the other parents on his boy’s team, waiting. The judge crabbed a little with the other parents about an apparent delay in the start of the game, while he stood around and smoked some cigarettes. His wife was sitting in her aluminum folding chair (brought from their home) and was passing the time knitting and chatting.

There was nothing about the judge or his family that would alert you that this person is out of touch with the common people and does not get out of the courthouse enough.

2) At Halloween, my family goes to a huge farm where they have amusement rides and hayrides, and a haunted house-type thing. We make a day of it and buy our pumpkins. I enjoyed watching a sitting Federal Judge there in the recent past, picking out his pumpkins, just like the common person he is.

The anecdotes I supplied above are not from social gatherings where lawyers and judges schmooze. The anecdotes are from a couple of chance encounters wtih Federal Judges in real life. I have seen federal judges a couple of other times, shopping or walking down the street. I know what the judges look like, having spent time with them face-to-face in courtrooms or in the judges’ chambers.

Judges make a good solid upper middle class wage, secure for life. But they are not rich unless they became rich before becoming judges.

A regular family will be as well off as a Federal Judge’s, if both husband and wife work at good jobs. The family of a full-time union construction worker, married to a registered nurse, will probably be as well off as a Federal Judge in terms of salary.

However, if we could find a moderate-minded respectful non-judge, it would be ok. But we really gotta be careful with anyone who lacks a public track record of their viewpoints and philosophy. This new judge will be the deciding vote in any number of critical cases to American business and liberty interests.

Worldandnation: For high court, experience optional
Compared with the nation as a whole, the senators are disproportionately wealthy, white and male. But they must run for re-election every six years and they give lots of speeches to a wide range of audiences. Those Rotary Club lunches and July Fourth parades keep them in touch with the nation, they say.

By contrast, Specter said, a typical judge doesn’t get out of the courthouse enough.

“You look at records, you read cases, you have very little contact with people,” the Pennsylvania Republican said.

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid said he, too, would like Bush to appoint someone who has not been a judge.

“We need diversity in the Supreme Court like we need diversity everyplace else - diversity of ideas,” said Reid, who has recommended several senators for the O’Connor seat.