How screwed up is our government and legal systems? All together now, "How screwed up is it?" It is so screwed up that Elena Kagan, President Obama's Supreme Court nominee, is being hailed as an ideal candidate precisely because she has little judicial experience. She will be holding a lifetime position that affects the lives of every person in the U.S. for the next 30-40 years yet we know very little about her reasoning abilities or legal propensities.
By comparison, would you want a physician who was dean of Harvard Medical School, has done research at the NIH, and done policy work for the government, and suddenly expect him to perform a liver transplant or take care of ICU patients? You would wonder about his medical judgement and clinical abilities since he has been away from patient care for so long.
Perhaps Obama is trying to surround himself with inexperienced people, as he himself is and demonstrates that fact every single day.
She wouldn't be the first Justice who lacked previous judicial experience. Actually, after a little research it looks like nearly 60% of all Supreme Court Justices were appointed without having previous experience on the bench.
ReplyDeleteBut i'm just a silly Canadian :)
BTW, I've thoroughly enjoyed reading your blog over the past while.
Thank you for that nice complement. I'm glad you happily wasted some of your precious time on this earth reading random thoughts from a silly anesthesiologist down here in the states.
ReplyDelete