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by Nicholas BeaudrotI eventually put John McCain's stump speech appearance at the Saddbleback Church on mute, but I did catch this answer on the question of which justices he would not have nominated.
McCain: With all due respect, Justice Ginsburg, Justice Breyer, Justice Souter, Justice Stevens.Warren: Why? Tell me why?McCain: Well, I think that the President of the United States has incredible responsibility in nominating people to the United States Supreme Court [it's hard in the transcript to capture just how much McCain is fumbling to answer this question]. They are lifetime positions as well as the federal bench. There will be two maybe three vacancies. This nomination should be based on the criteria of proven record of strictly adhering to the Constitution of the United States and not legislating from the bench. Some of the worst damage has been done by legislating from the bench. And by the way, Justices Alito and Roberts are two of my favorites, by the way...I know McCain will be shocked to hear this, but the Scalia/Alito/Roberts wing of the court is the group of justices most likely to strike down agency rules, and I believe, most likely to strike down legislation, though I can't find the study. The reverse is also not quite true; Breyere and GInsburg are tend to strike down very little, while Souter and Stevens are less deferential to Congress or the executive branch. But either way, if McCain wants to gnash his teeth about judges "legislating from the bench", he should start with the judges his own party has been picking.photo of the Supreme Court by user OZinOH under the Creative Commons license.
