Barack Obama’s judicial nominees (Baltimore Sun)

James Oliphant of the Baltimore Sun blogged about Barack Obama’s judicial nominees. http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/politics/blog/2008/05/printer-obama_on_judges.html

Here is some of what Obama has said on the topic:

What you’re looking for is somebody who is going to apply the law where it’s clear. Now there’s gonna be those five percent of cases or one percent of cases where the law isn’t clear. And the judge has to then bring in his or her own perspectives, his ethics, his or her moral bearings.
And In those circumstance what I do want is a judge who is sympathetic enough to those who are on the outside, those who are vulnerable, those who are powerless, those who can’t have access to political power and as a consequence can’t protect themselves from being being dealt with sometimes unfairly, that the courts become a refuge for justice. That’s been its historic role. That was its role in Brown v Board of Education.

We’ve got to make sure civil rights are protected. We have got to make sure civil liberties are protected. Because oftentimes there are pressures that are placed on politicians to want to set civil liberties aside, especially at times when we’ve had terrorist attacks. Making sure we maintain our separation of powers so we dont have a president who is taking over more and more power.