Monday, May 03, 2010

More information please: unilingual judges edition

Apparently some people think unilingual judges should be permitted to sit on the Supreme Court. The people who support this seem to be thinking that requiring bilingualism (and this even though it would just be passive bilingualism) would rule out some of the best candidates.

But judges on all other Federal Courts have to be bilingual.

So under what circumstances would a person be one of the very best candidates in the country for the Supreme Court but not have Federal Court experience? What experience or expertise would they have that Federal Court judges lack? Why, if this experience or expertise makes a person such an epicly better candidate than the Federal Court judges, has is not been possible for any of the Federal Court judges to gain similar expertise?

Are there any actual specific people currently in existence would would be an ideal candidate for the Supreme Court but don't have Federal Court experience? If so, with the understanding that I haven't exactly been breathlessly following jurists' careers, what do these specific people have that the existing Federal Court judges don't?

1 comment:

laura k said...

I am going to subscribe to this thread to see if anyone has a real answer.