When the GOP Valued Judicial Empathy

Republican senators would have us believe that the law provides judges with a foolproof mechanism to dispense with their experiences, background and beliefs, as Eugene Robinson suggested in his July 14 op-ed column ["Whose Identity Politics?"]. They criticize President Obama for saying that empathy is a desirable attribute in judges and find fault with Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor for displaying any hint of it.

Republicans have come a long way from the insights of one of their distinguished presidents. In a letter to Sen. Henry Cabot Lodge on the nomination of Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. to the Supreme Court, Theodore Roosevelt said, "The ablest lawyers and greatest judges are men whose past has naturally brought them into close relationship with the wealthiest and most powerful clients, and I am glad I can find a judge who has been able to preserve his aloofness of mind so as to keep his broad humanity of feeling and his sympathy for the class from which he has not drawn his clients. I think it eminently desirable that our Supreme Court should show in unmistakable fashion their entire sympathy with all proper effort to secure the most favorable consideration for men who need that consideration . . . "

ALEXANDER H. FLAX

Potomac