Tired of Supreme Court commentary? I understand. Bear with me for one more and I'll shut up for a while.
Another curious part of the stylized dance everybody does around a Supreme Court nomination is the confirmation hearing. Supposedly, Senators delve into a nominee's past decisions, qualifications, and judicial philosophy but in recent decades the utility of these proceedings seems to have been subverted by politics and the media. The nominee goes into a confirmation hearing knowing what to say and not say, like a thespian with a carefully prepared script. Even if the Senate panel succeed in getting beyond the script, however, the hearings won't necessarily provide a good insight into what the nominee will do on the Court.
After confirmation, it's amazing how often a Justice confounds expectations - either those of the President who nominated him, or those the Senate Judiciary Committee formed from his testimony. Take, for example, Chief Justice John Roberts. A lengthy piece by The New Yorker's legal columnist Jeffrey Toobin argues that Roberts has moved far from the assurances he gave the Senate during his confirmation and is now the Supreme Court's "stealth hard-liner." If so, that's a plus for Bush, but let's give it more time and see what Roberts's record looks like 10 years from now. Justice Souter did not prove to be the rock of conservatism he was predicted to be. Likewise, Sotomayor's record even now is not uniformly "liberal" so it is anyone's guess how her opinions will develop over time.
Justices sit for a lifetime. Evolution is key. A newly minted Justice, confronted with new, more awesome responsibility, will usually "grow into the job," just as we expect a state governor who becomes President to abandon childish things and work for the good of the country rather than advance the interests of his state. Evolution begins at that point, proceeds through exposure to the arguments of the other Justices and the cases before the court, and continues its effect as the Justice (surprise!) gets older.
The kabuki of the confirmation hearing is not the life-or-death matter partisans make it out to be. Rightists, leftists of the world, relax! You may be surprised.
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