Word: litmus
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...Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, "Do justice, sir, do justice!" Holmes replied, "That is not my job. My job is to apply the law." The judiciary is not in the business of making the laws. That duty is reserved to the legislative branch. Extremists who apply a single-issue litmus test to a nominee wish to achieve ends in the judiciary which they have no hope of achieving in the legislatures of this country. This is a circumvention of democracy and must be stopped...
...bend to the liberal interest groups who desire revenge via a left-wing choice. An overly qualified, centrist choice would indicate that Clinton does not intend to sink to the cynical level of his predecessors. Democrats in the Senate must not give in to pressure to apply an abortion litmus test to the nominee; they have to be ready to have legitimate disagreements with the nominee on matters of interpretation without throwing the judge out with the baby, as it were...
...effect looked suspiciously like sex discrimination. So, compounding the error, the Administration decided to formalize its accidental policy and apply it to men as well as women. Henceforth, the Administration announced, all candidates for the hundreds of government jobs subject to Senate confirmation must pass the Zoe Baird litmus test...
Maybe it's time for the President to stage one of those New Age, public- confessional scenes that lofted him through so many rough spots during the campaign. If he could admit to trying marijuana and having marital problems, why not admit that the nanny litmus test is a mistake? He could bring on the cameras, sit in front of a glowing hearth in the White House family quarters and pensively bite his lower lip. "As working parents," one can imagine him saying, "Hillary and I understand the anguish of searching for quality day care for children." He could insert...
Traditionally, career bureaucrats at Justice formed a strong middle- management layer that protected the department against the excesses of political appointees. But under Reagan and Bush, even the lowliest attorney had to pass an ideological litmus test. "When Reagan was elected, the political appointees came in and started handing out pink slips all over the place," recalls Stuart Smith, president of Council 26 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees...