Ask the candidates about judges

This is worth repeating. The single most important issue to vote is the president’s power to appoint judges.

So, what are we hearing in the debates about that?

Mario Diaz, the policy director for legal issues for the pro-life group Concerned Women for America, says he is surprised a comment Biden made during the vice-presidential debate hasn’t received more attention.

Asked to name a policy issue on which he changed his mind, Biden said he determined five years into his Senate tenure that he should start evaluating the ideology of judicial appointments.

“It took about five years for me to realize that the ideology of that judge makes a big difference,” he said.

Biden went on to say that judicial picks are important because of their views on Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court case that allowed virtually unlimited abortions for any reason during pregnancy, and he talked about how he was proud to have helped defeat the nomination of pro-life nominee Robert Bork.

“A judge’s ideology is what drives Sen. Biden’s decision on whether to vote for a judicial nominee?” Diaz asked in response to the comments in an editorial published Thursday on Town Hall.

“Isn’t a judge supposed to follow the law as enacted by the people’s representatives, even when he doesn’t agree ideologically with the policy behind that law?” Diaz asked.

(Answer: Yes. See Original Intent, below.) 

 “If judges are to abide by the Constitution and the laws enacted by the legislature, then [ideology] doesn’t really matter.”

He said Biden’s comment during the debate was surprising, “but not nearly as shocking as the lack of attention paid to his remarks.”

We should not be shocked anymore by any acts of media misfeasance. Engaged, but not shocked.