| | |
|
ElenaKagan 24 - 28 Jun 2010 - Main.DavidGoldin
|
| | Is anyone else disappointed with this nomination (from a non liberal/conservative point of view)?
I think it is terribly disappointing that we keep getting these Ivy League judges on the Supreme Court. Sure, Kagan has no "bench" experience, so in that aspect she is diverse. She is also female, which may be needed. But, she is still what at least 7 out of the other 8 are on the court: legal intellectuals. Frankly, I would have liked to have seen (and would like to see in the future) non-intellectuals grace the halls of the court again. There used to be a time when one did not have to go to an Ivy league law school to be on the court. Now, it is a prerequisite. And, I can't think of a nominee that would be a bigger intellectual than Kagan: law prof turned Harvard Law School Dean. But, I don't know the woman, so, maybe I'm wrong. | | | We aren't even talking about Ivy's now, just the two schools, so I don't think the issue is elitism, generally. I think the problem here, which Brooks is also addressing, involves the ramifications for society when opportunities follow only the narrow kinds of success that certain institutions recognize. You eliminate risk-takers disproportionately and thereby lose diversity and innovation. In the case of the Court, it may mean you're getting the best and the brightest, or it may mean you're simply getting the people who invested the most into proving they could do the one thing everyone accepted to a top law school can do-get a grade. Whatever the case, I think the near total domination of the Court by the Harvard and Yale brands alone represents a surrender to narrow and arbitrary institutional values. | |
>
> |
I've been reading this post for a while, and have really enjoyed the discussion. I saw an article today in the New York Times about the changing demographics of the Supreme Court. I hadn't thought about it before, but there has been a pretty marked shift in the ethnic/religious composition on the court. What the article doesn't discuss, however, is the increasing lack of diversity in terms of educational/employment backgrounds (especially with regards where one attends school), which Rory has helpfully given statistics to support.
It seems as though we're moving from one extreme, racial/religious homogeneity, to another, educational homogeneity. The two are completely different and I don't mean to compare them, but the above article made me think of this. Just some food for thought - I'd love to hear what other people have to think about this.
-- DavidGoldin - 28 Jun 2010 | | | |
|
|
|
|
This site is powered by the TWiki collaboration platform.
All material on this collaboration platform is the property of the contributing authors.
All material marked as authored by Eben Moglen is available under the license terms CC-BY-SA version 4.
|
|
| | |