Barney Frank, Justice Scalia, Obama and the future Supreme Court

Ann Althouse writes in the Chicago Tribune of the background of Rep. Barney Frank's nonsensical attack on Justice Antoin Scalia for being a "homophobe". She then takes Obama's comments about the kind of person he intends to appoint to the Supreme Court.

Bottom line: we're in trouble.

If Frank's accusations inflamed you, think hard about why Frank chose to portray Scalia the way he did. I suspect Frank would like to soften us up for future judicial nominations. Back in 2007, Barack Obama told us about "the criteria by which I'm going to be selecting my judges": "We need somebody who's got the heart, the empathy, to recognize what it's like to be a young teenage mom. The empathy to understand what it's like to be poor, or African-American, or gay, or disabled or old."

If Obama delivers nominees who've demonstrated their heart and empathy by reaching outcomes that accord with liberal political preferences, will liberals forget that we need to test the soundness of their legal reasoning? If Frank succeeds in getting people to believe that judicial opinions are the kind wishes of good hearts, we will rubber-stamp these seemingly good people.

If we do that, we will have forgotten what law is, and our rights will depend on the continued beneficence of the judges we've empowered.