Down With the Covetous

Our blogfriend the Rude Pundit points out that Tony Perkins (the one who works for the Family Research Council, not the one who stabbed Janet Leigh in the shower in the movie Psycho) has requested that the President nominate a Supreme Court Justice who follows the following passage from scripture:

Moreover thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God,
men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them, to be rulers of
thousands, and rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens...

Hating covetousness? We at the Blasphemy Blog would go along with that. It’s true, hatred of covetousness is not your traditional qualification to be a Justice on the United States Supreme Court, but then, these are not traditional times.

Once upon a time, before we at the Blasphemy Blog were born, Supreme Court Justices were chosen on the basis of having written great treatises of law, like Oliver Wendell Holmes, having distinguished themselves as practicing lawyers, like Thurgood Marshall, or having made political deals with Presidents, like Earl Warren.

Back in the 1980s, though, this system was replaced, out of necessity, with the Dumb Justice system, under which Justices are expected to pretend that they have no opinions about important legal issues. That way, they can claim ignorance when asked about their feelings on the hot button issues of the day, and thereby avoid partisan nomination battles.

It’s also best that a prospective Justice not have published a great deal of legal writing, as such a “paper trail” might also allow people to figure out his or her legal temperament, which, once again, would lead to the bitter partisanship hell of a nomination battle.

Basically, this means that the ideal Justice under the current system should be a blank slate, someone who has distinguished himself or herself by doing something other than lawyering. After all, if you’ve distinguished yourself as a jurist or legal scholar, it means people know what you think.

Unfortunately, this means that the ideal Justice would be someone who hasn’t thought much about anything or written much of anything.

We at the Blasphemy Blog feel that this system has run its course. It’s time for new qualifications, and we agree with Tony Perkins that “hating covetousness” is the way to go. We think that the covetous have enough friends in the federal judiciary, and will be glad for the change.