European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 22, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 a the stars and stripes saturday september 22,1990 columns Ellen Goodman % i by i a in a. A 1 a a a Niv i Ilu i. Job. I a y. To a Pic Toiyo 7.1 / i. Or a it 1 1 Quot a i m 1 &Quot\\1 l r a a on n a i a 1 a nil i ii it 1 r 01 11 i. A by -vi1 1 Ivy i a a a i it nov a must Aby i is <iin.i51, a a a very pm it a a or a i ii 1 of at y. I. I .s.,--. It Ili a n . Quot a . A i a a to a of v in Jii Ukia Quot v r a a m a i \ a a. A i i a no. A i i a a a a it y a y adult Nibur Raul even Kite Michelian of the National abortion rights action league Wlinich opposes the nomination said that a realistically our energies have to be focused on the unless the Man from new Hampshire arrested for Drunken driving in a stolen car with a vial of crack on his dashboard this weekend he a going to get a new Job by october Souter was ultimately graded on the Robert Bork pass fail test. All his summer cramming paid off. Three years ago in the hearings Robert Bork came across an icy arrogant Jurist who regarded the Prospect of work on the supreme court an a intellectual the Public could hear him salivating Over the Chance to Chew on their rights. When Souter arrived in Washington the question was about the Man not the Jurist. Was the solitary soul from the Granite state out of sync with everyday human problems was he like his Black and White to in a full color Cable Era the country waited for him to literally a flesh out his views of the Law with those of humanity. And this judge obliged. Early on when pressed on the abortion Issue with stories from the pre Roe Days Souter countered by sharing a memory of his own about a meeting with a distraught pregnant student. Robert Bork would have dismissed a the woman irrelevant to the Issue. Souter said to the Public i listen. I can hear you. Again and again he let it be known that the judicial process was about people Well ideas. He let it be known that a judge could be objective without being Remote a we have to be constantly aware that we cannot Seal ourselves none of this tells How Souter will Rule especially on Roe. We done to know what the Young Souter told the younger woman. We done to know what moral he Drew from that tale what Impact it had on his thinking. Indeed while the nominee answered questions about capital punishment judicial activism even discrimination Walter r. Mears a 1 i. So a a a t i Kyj 1 Cli i ii amp a o a a amp amp pfc i t.1 amp a j. Yaj. A it -7v n -.vj. La a it a. A a a a i 4 a or on by Quot iia fun y a a by a a a a a v y\,.y-. A -v.-.4 -.r3 h ii he singled out Roe for refusal. But if we did no to learn much about the decisions Well get from Souter we Learned a lot about what people want from the Law. We want courts and judges who speak in what ethicist Carol Gilligan has described two voices the voice of Justice and the voice of caring. Over the past 25 years it has become Clear that the decisions of the courts especially the supreme court reach into everyday life. They determine where we Send our children to school and with whom How we Deal with life and with death. We want judges who see these issues not a matter of conflicting rights but Messy stones of human relationships a a fair part of the Public wants to think that judges wont inject a personal vision into their work they want Law to be above passion and politics a a says Harvard Law professor Laurence tribe. A but some of the same people by Chwu want to think of judges human beings who listen to it the human plight. Some of those who say a right i done want someone legislating through the courts a also say wrong if someone looks like a robot or lacking ii human in Short we done to want justices who a a go with thei hearts. Nor do we want justices who Check them at the chamber door. We want them to be impartial and empathetic. David Souter did no to ooze compassion across the hear ing room floor but he passed the Bork test. A a whatever the court does a said this Man a thousands of lives Wil be affected and that fact will be of grader sen. Simpson put it this Way a a out in the land there a Good feeling. For the moment. The unknown Man who can tip the court and Changi our lives came Down from the mountains of new Hamp Shire. He has promised one thing to listen. Tha Beeton Globa naw Apapas company nominee has unassailable reply to Basic question met mitc the u. sometimes the obvious simple question the Tough one. Supreme court nominee David h. Souter a judge who studies the precedents he was ready when someone asked him Why he wants the Job he a about to get. Souter said at his Senate confirmation hearing that he loves the judiciary wants no calling but that of a judge and would seek on the High court to serve a Steward of the Constitution. He said it the greatest responsibility that a judge can undertake a to join with eight other people to make the promises of the Constitution a reality for our time and to preserve that Constitution for the generations that will follow after we Are gone from that san unassailable if vague answer to a question that would seem elementary for any nominee or office seeker. It a question that Isnit always answered effectively. When sen. Edward m. Kennedy was asked Why he wanted to be president he prepared to run in 1980, his awkward rambling attempt to reply became a Campaign liability. Robert h. Bork told the contentious Senate hearing on his doomed nomination to the supreme court that service there would be a an intellectual he also said that he wanted to contribute to maintaining constitutional government he saw it. Bork of course had spelled out the Way he saw it in lectures writings and rulings a Federal appeals judge that established positions on most major constitutional issues of the times. Souter has not. Three Days of questioning by the Senate judiciary committee did t change that. Souter talked about himself about his experiences about his judicial philosophy about dozens of decisions and precedents. But he did not Telegraph to sceptical liberals or to newly wary conservatives where he would stand on the questions awaiting the closely divided court a matters including abortion civil rights and criminal Justice. Souter foreclosed answers to the Abor Hon question Early in the process declining to discuss the courts 1973 Roe is. Wade ruling or to express his personal opinion on abortion. At the same time he said that he be Heves that the 14th amendment to the Constitution a does recognize and does protect an in enumerated right of Priva that position does no to fit the conservative Agenda very Well. The ruling that legalized abortions was based on the right to privacy something Bork had said was invented by the court. That was one contentious Point among Many at the 1987 hearings on his court nomination. Bork a formidable Legal scholar. He showed it in disputing critics and at times questioners. Souter was said to have reviewed the Bork hearings and to have watched videotapes of some Points in that testimony he prepared for his own test. Souter was no less the scholar some of his carefully crafted answers came Complete with footnotes he cited Legal history supreme court cases and provisions of the Constitution. At the same time he sought to dispel the notion that a 51-year-old Bachelor who still lives in his boyhood Home in a Small. A a Uusi every Day concerns Remote a theorist rather than a judge who can understand real world concerns. He worked at countering that impression from the. Beginning saying that his first lesson a judge was that a at the end of our task some human being going to be affected some human life going to but changed in some Way by what we do.�?�. He answered some questions by speaking of personal experiences a a wrench my two hour counselling session with i pregnant woman who was considering self abortion a Quarter Century ago when it was a freshman adviser at Harvard College a boyhood in which he never Heardracial slur in his household a contempt Foi discrimination reinforced by seeing antisemitism against his Friend sen. Warren Rudman of new Hampshire. He was deferential. When he declined to answer he said he did with respect not by Choice but because he respond without jeopardizing a the integrity of the judicial even when the questions took on an Edge Souter did not. A i think the nation served Well by seeing me and by seeing you a he told the senators. A a Ute a people who watched the televised hearings saw a Man who looks acts been an appellate judge Ami i want to b nothing or
