European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - July 20, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Saturday july 20, 1991 the stars and stripes a Page 13 James j. Kilpatrick evaluate Thomas As judge a not As Black Ever since his nomination to the supreme court Clarence Thomas has been the talk of this talkative town. Most of the talk has been political talk. The talk is of Thomas As a Black. For a refreshing change suppose we talk of Thomas As a judge. The complaint is heard that Thomas is inexperienced a that he has served Little More than a year As a . Circuit judge. The same charge of inexperience could be levelled at half of the judges who have served on the supreme court in this Century. By my count 25 of the 48 justices who have come to the court since 1900 have arrived with Little or no judicial experience. Some of them Are Well remembered. Louis Brandeis Abe Fortas and Lewis Powell had no judicial experience at All. Hugo Black had none to speak of. Felix Frankfurter was a High ranking bureaucrat. William o. Douglas was chairman of the securities and Exchange commission. Earl Warren had been governor of California. All of them left their Mark. There is Good reason to believe that Thomas if he is confirmed will leave his Mark also. 1 venture that judgment after Reading everything Thomas has written for the . Court of appeals for the District of Columbia. The Corpus consists of 17 opinions for the court one concurring opinion and one dissenting opinion. His writings addressed a Nice variety of civil and criminal issues. They show considerable Promise. What should we look for in a supreme court nominee first in my own View we should look for a sense of judicial restraint. If we want reformers at the Federal level a if we want activists who will pursue specific causes a we should elect them to Congress. On the Bench we want judges who will seek to determine what the Law is and not what it ought to be. Second we rightfully May ask for a Man or woman with an orderly mind and a Lucid pen. At the appellate level in both state and Federal courts judges Are laying Down the Law for lower courts to follow. The first commandment for an appellate opinion is that it be Clear. The . Rosenthal second is like the first be Clear be Clear be Clear a Thomas qualifies. In one opinion after another he sounds a theme of judicial restraint. In june of last year Thomas wrote for the court in a Case involving Keith d. Long. The defendant was convicted of possessing cocaine and of a using or carrying a firearm. There was no evidence that Long carried a gun. The unloaded weapon was tucked into Cush-1 ions on a sofa. Thomas was urged to give a Liberal construction to the verb  he declined. A use a he said Means use. In another Case this one involving the Otis elevator co., Thomas again gave a strict Reading to statutory Law. Here the question went to interpretation of the word  Thomas saw no need for interpretation. Under the Federal mine safety act an operator is an opera Tor is an operator. Perhaps the clearest exposition of his judicial philosophy came in a Case on Appeal from the interstate Commerce commission. The Case involved ferry service in Long Island sound. A key question was whether the Iccy a mandate to promote a a efficient transportation embraces the Power to consider environmental Impact. Two of Thomas colleagues said yes. Thomas dissenting said no. A should the inc Ponder the effects of its actions on the a increasingly fragile Quot Waters of the sound said Thomas �?o1 agree that As a matter of policy it probably should. As a matter of Law however the commission has no Power to regulate ferries for environmental  turning to another aspect of the Case Thomas observed for the record that a it Edural courts Are courts of limited Juris  if jurisdiction does not exist Federal judges have no authority to exercise it even if everyone a judges parties members of the Public a wants the dispute resolved. A the Truis tic constraint on the Federal judicial Power then is this a Federal court May not decide cases when it cannot decide cases and must determine whether it can before it  i that sentence was packed As tightly As the inside of a Walnut. It is a Beautiful summation of a topic on which volumes have been written and it Speaks Well for i Homas Powers of Clear explication. You will infer correctly that 1 like what i am learning about the gentleman. He is my kind of thinker and my kind of writer. He has an orderly and a reasoning mind. C Universal press Syndicate children the casualties of War without end there a no real news in this column except maybe that before tomorrow morning about 40,000 people will die who should have lived quite longer. These people Are All less than 5 years old. The Day after about the same number of Small people will die a give or take a thousand or two. And the Day after that and so on and so on All through the year. If you put it All together and multiply 40,000 by 365, would that be news the children will die of disease hunger and neglect. Most could have been saved with Medicine food Money and attention if Only those things had been provided. To allow people of any age to die when they could have been saved is moral Slaughter a reality almost too obvious to pronounce. But i am writing this column about the Slaughter of the infants not because i have suddenly become a better Wiser or More moral person no fear but essentially for a selfish reason. This morning i realized that unless i wrote at once about information that had just come to me in a heavy packet from Geneva i really could not get on to another column. That happens once in a while a a journals the package was from the world health organization. I had asked for updated information on the casualties of the War without end against starvation and disease. The articles and statistical tables All Are totally Clear to anybody who can spare a few hours for 40,000 children a that is 40,000 a Day. Of course As the who tables show adults also die of preventable or curable disease and malnutrition. But of the yearly total of 50 million victims one third have not lived to their fifth birthday. The Chance of living beyond the fifth birthday in one of those countries where children have big bellies and lolling Heads is one in eight. Two thirds of the dead children did not achieve their first birthday. About 10,000 a Day die after one week a one week. Nothing mysterious Here no unexplained crib deaths it is simply that their mothers did not receive sufficient a Quality of care during pregnancy and delivery. Insufficient Quality of care Means not enough food Medicine or clean birth cloths and water. Every Day about 8,000 children die because the countries in which they were born Are unfortunate enough not to have vaccines against preventable diseases. Many of these countries have leaders so occupied with killing their subjects that they Are too Busy to think of saving their subjects children. And of course a aids. Half a million cases among women and children. Soon new tables will be necessary because in this decade aids will kill 3 million. And about 10 million children will become aids orphans. How Many children die because they were born into families that had no prayer of feeding them for Lack of population control information or contraceptives guess yourself a the who does not. Only one thing is sure More today than yesterday More tomorrow than today. And How Many die of the disease called National politics How Many were put into their Graves because of warfare among parties regions and tribes that forced their parents to live worse than animals in the Field As their babies died what killed these children and their parents bacteria our unconcern or leaders who Are called your excellency when they come to preen at the United nations most. Often i suppose All three. The United nations to great Opportunity arises for it. Surely it docs not need another politician Diplomat or civil servant to become the next Secretary general a Job opening soon. It needs a scientist or physician of renown to Lead in the War without end. A Man or woman Wise Strong and True enough to do that and who could also handle with Honor the marginal diplomatic role of the Secretary general. In a Short time a search committee could produce a new kind of Secretary general one who would keep our attention on children who die every year before they Are 5, on their parents and on their killers a viral economic or human. Say a month a which would be 30 times 40,000, give or take a few thousand c the new York times the opinions expressed in the columns and cartoons on this Page represent those of the authors and Are in no Way to be considered As representing the views of i he stars and stripes or the United states government