Sandra and the West Judiciary

We don't often write about judges, Supreme they may be, or not. But, the West has a good track record of sending great Justices back east to sit on the Supreme Court. My favorite is obviously William O. Douglas.

In all of this SCOTUS scribbling, it shouldn't be lost on anyone that Sandra Day O'Connor was of the West.

"As a Westerner, she brought to the court a love of the land and an appreciation for individual rights," said Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev. "Above all, Justice O'Connor has been a voice of reason and moderation on the court. It is vital that she be replaced by someone like her, someone who embodies the fundamental American values of freedom, equality and fairness."

..."I think the consistent mark of her jurisprudence in regard to these issues is always trying to find some sort of balance between desirability of local control and the need for some sort of federal oversight," Campos said. "It's hard to find a consistent pattern in her decisions."

O'Connor was a champion for the West, said Jim Sims, executive director of the Golden-based Western Business Roundtable, a nonprofit group that tries to influence land-use, energy, pollution, wildlife and other regional issues.

"The fact is a lot of the laws written on the East Coast just don't work as well in the West," Sims said. "Regional differences are real differences, and to the extent those regional differences can be reflected on the court, that's just a better way of interpreting the law."

Especially the point made above in trying to balance local control with federal oversight is still a pressing issue in the West, and shouldn't be ignored by liberals back east whose knees are constantly jerking for continued federal control. As we've said before, leaving the West to Westerners, smartly done, is a good thing for Democrats to fight for.

Emmett O'Connell | July 8, 2005 | Comment on This Post (0 so far) Permalink: Sandra and the West Judiciary

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