toward a Supreme Court that looks more like...... New York City?

[rob in cal]

While pondering yet another impressive Jewish achievement in America, to achieve a 33% representation on the US Supreme Court, I stumbled on, with a little help from NPR, the realization that the new Supreme Court, with the addition of Kagan, will look even more
like a microcosm of the Greater New York City area.  With Kagan, we now have five justices, Kagan, Ginsburg, Sotomayor, Scalia and Alito who are from either New York or New Jersey.
. In addition, the 6 Catholic and 3 Jews breakdown of the court also bears some similarity to the area as well.  Of course historically Protestants (whether "culturally" Protestants or active believers) have been overrepresented on the court, and now they are totally unrepresented. We certainly are moving away from a court that looks more like the US, and toward one that looks more like NYC.

[rob in cal]

Though of course on a gender basis, the Kagan nomination does bring the court one step closer to a closer representation of the US as a whole.

[Free Palestine]

I really think people should stop obsessing over this crap.

[??????????]

How about worrying about if the person will interpret the constitution correctly?

[J. J.]

I think if you feel that the Court should "look like America," Obama has has had an epic fail here.

I do, however, like the idea that he's not appointing a judge.  I don't like the idea that he's chosen someone whose experience is fairly limited to Harvard and the White House.  To some extent, Meyer was better.

[Brittain33]

I think if you feel that the Court should "look like America," Obama has has had an epic fail here.

Not on gender... certainly appointing a Jewish judge is no more epic than the epic fail of halving the small minority of women by replacing O'Connor with a man.

Obama is succeeding at making the Supreme Court look like the U.S. Senate more than anything else. All we need is for a future Republican President to replace Scalia with a Mormon.

[Sewer]

How about worrying about if the person will interpret the constitution correctly?

That's all I care about.

[paul718]

Peep my sig.  (until the Daily News breaks the link)

[hawkeye59]

How about worrying about if the person will interpret the constitution correctly?

I've got to agree. Do we want a court that is diverse and spread across the country but doesn't interpret the constitution correctly, or a regional and identical, but interprets the constitution correctly? I personally would take the second.

[Free Palestine]

Kagan is the last person to trust with "correctly" interpreting the Constitution.

[??????????]

Kagan is the last person to trust with "correctly" interpreting the Constitution.

All she does is parrot whatever Obama says anyway.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Peep my sig.  (until the Daily News breaks the link)

Those 4 are from NYC. Roberts is from upstate NY. Alito is from NJ. Breyer and Kennedy are from the SF Bay area and Sacramento. Thomas is from Georgia. Not a huge amount of geographical variation there. Maybe Obama should have nominated some liberal Protestant from Iowa or something.

[fezzyfestoon]

Peep my sig.  (until the Daily News breaks the link)

Hehe, I like that...except it needs the Jersey parts.

[opebo]

How about worrying about if the person will interpret the constitution correctly?

Should be 'the way I want it to be interpreted', States.  There's no 'correct' or 'incorrect'.

Anyway I would prefer that they avoid this regional bias. 

[Nym90]

Kagan is the last person to trust with "correctly" interpreting the Constitution.

All she does is parrot whatever Obama says anyway.

Well, that is her job at the moment...

It's kinda like complaining that lawyers just parrot their clients, rather than injecting their own personal views into their summations.

[Lunar]

Fun fact: every borough will be represented in the SC except Staten Island

[they don't love you like i love you]

Fun fact: every borough will be represented in the SC except Staten Island

paul718 beat you to it.

[they don't love you like i love you]

How the hell are Greece and the Supreme Court even remotely related?

[Lunar]

pls stop personal attacking, the first round of deletes didn't do enough I see.

[Lunar]

Fun fact: every borough will be represented in the SC except Staten Island

paul718 beat you to it.

Dang, does he count?

[Akno21]

If there's any region/city that would (or should) "dominate" the court, it'd be New York. I'd be far more concerned if the court had an excess of justices from Nebraska or something.

To reiterate previous posters, it's completely irrelevant. Scalia and Ginsburg both being from New York certainly isn't causing them to vote identically. Still, the inanity of the geography argument won't stop certain senators from making it. John Cornyn's already said something to the effect of Kagan being out of touch with most Americans having spent her time in Harvard, Hyde Park, and inside the DC Beltway. Since it's Kagan's fault that's where elite law institutions and the federal government are located.

[Lunar]

To reiterate previous posters, it's completely irrelevant. Scalia and Ginsburg both being from New York certainly isn't causing them to vote identically. Still, the inanity of the geography argument won't stop certain senators from making it. John Cornyn's already said something to the effect of Kagan being out of touch with most Americans having spent her time in Harvard, Hyde Park, and inside the DC Beltway. Since it's Kagan's fault that's where elite law institutions and the federal government are located.

Actually, I disagree with you here.  OBAMA was the one who said "real world experience" was an important qualification in his selection of a justice, when he had already decided on Sotomayor.  One of Sotomayor's qualifications was that she understood how law impacted those living on Main Street, and working families.

Kagan, on the other hand, has lived in a bit of an Ivory Tower, in academia and the Washington Beltway, for her entire life, and the posh Upper West Side for her childhood.

So what Cornyn is doing, from what I can tell, is spinning Obama's own words about selecting his first justice back on him for his second justice, which is a pretty fair political argument to make imo.

[fezzyfestoon]

If there's any region/city that would (or should) "dominate" the court, it'd be New York. I'd be far more concerned if the court had an excess of justices from Nebraska or something.

The region that should dominate the court really ought to be Los Angeles.  I've taken the liberty of selecting some clear-headed judicial candidates living in the area:



Sorry, I'm painfully bored...

[??????????]

That SCOTUS would have lol written all over it.

[Padfoot]

He should've nominated an Asian Buddhist.  That would have been sweet.  We need more Asians in government IMO.