Supreme Court Justice: Should Be About The Law

The recent death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has brought to the front the nomination and confirmation process.  With on party in the White House and another party running the Congress, there is always a struggle about who will be confirmed as the next sitting judge.

My belief is this:  It shouldn't matter about political affiliation, personal beliefs or religious ideology.  It should be about the law, Constitutional Law to be exact.  They should be well versed in the Constitution, have a clear understanding what it truly means and be able to settle matters as a point of law. Anything other than that is an absolute miscarriage of justice.

The Supreme Court is our highest legal forum in our system of justice.  If we allow political, personal or religious beliefs enter into, we are actually going against the idea behind the Constitution.  The separation of Church and State means that religious ideology shouldn't come into play.  However, that doesn't mean that they can't rule on certain Bill of Rights issues, but only so far as the Law and Constitution allows.

For example, the Supreme Court can rule whether or not a particular act or idea is covered and protected under the  First Amendment.  However, it should not be used to ban a particular religion or belief system.  It should not be used to curtail anyone's personal faith and beliefs.  It should be used to give those people the right to practice and believe as they so choose.

The Supreme Court should not be beholden to a particular political view or ideology.  For instance, it should be used to allow people of all creeds, colors and genders the right to vote and participate in elections.  It should not  be used to limit certain freedoms according to how the Justices personally believe or their political party says they should believe.

A hot button topic that enters this arena is that of abortion.  The religious right believes there should absolutely be not abortions.  The ultra liberals thinks that there should be no limits.  This is so much discord over this, it has literally torn our country apart.

But, think about this:  What if a a woman is raped?  Should she have to carry the product of her sexual assault to term because someone believes it a sin?  You may think "Well, they could give it up for adoption".

That's all well good except, adoption procedures in this country are extremely rough to get through.  Couple that with the fact that there are over 100,000 children in foster care today that are eligible for adoption, what is going to this child different.

Many pro-life people stop caring about the child once it's born.  But, if you force a child to be born to a mother who doesn't want it or can't afford it, then what are we truly saying about the child?  You can't complain about welfare mothers but take a way an option that will help them.

I'm not saying that abortion should be used as a birth control method, but I am saying we need to have choices.  What about the woman who already has 2 or 3 or more children, but is in the middle of a divorce and can't provide for the children she has?  Are the pro-lifers going to come and help her with the situation?  I don't think so.

That is why a Supreme Court Justice should put away his political, personal and religious beliefs.  They need to look strictly at the law.  They want to limit birth control for women, or even worse, funding for Planned Parenthood.  But, not every Planned Parenthood conducts abortions, but offers free or low cost cancer screenings, yearly exams as well as sexually transmitted disease testing.  They also counsel many women about birth control.

Those that do preform abortions, don't take just anyone and do an abortion.  There is required counseling, waiting period and discussion before the procedure is ever preformed.  If you limit birth control, take away options to pregnancy, many of those children still won't be born. Many of those women will have illegal abortions, which can pose serious health risks including infection, perforation of the uterus and even death.  The cost to our health care system would sky rocket.  Just take a look at what happened before Roe Vs Wade.

If we allow a Justice to use personal beliefs, political affiliations or religious beliefs trumps the law, then the law has absolutely no meaning and then nobody's political, personal or religious ideology is safe or protected.