[Ed. – This was on display twelve years ago when Obama complained the law as written lacked ‘compassion.’]
In all, no senator’s vote was changed. …
Does that mean the hearings are pointless, a kabuki process that wastes everyone’s time? Elsewhere I’ve written that they once served a purpose but have at best devolved into empty platitudes and gotcha games. …
But even if we didn’t learn anything this week, there was refreshing clarity on the parties’ divergent judicial philosophies. By that I … mean … the difference between law and policy. To take two contrasting examples from Wednesday’s session: (1) Republican Senator from Texas Ted Cruz discussed how he favors school choice — calling it “the civil rights issue of the next century” — but that it’s not the place of a federal judge to impose it, while (2) Democratic Senator from Hawaii Mazie Hirono called the distinction between law and policy “artificial.” …
