In his own words: Obama on the judges

Judges “who strictly believe in the letter of the Constitution” need not apply:

Transcript:

SEN. BARACK OBAMA: Well, look, I think that you — what you can ask a judge is about their judicial philosophy. And as somebody who taught constitutional law for ten years, who actually knows a lot of the potential candidates for Supreme Court on the right as well as on the left ’cause I’ve taught with them or interacted with them in some way — I can tell you that how a Justice approaches their job, how they describe the path of interpreting the Constitution, I think can tell you a lot.

And so my criteria, for example, would be — if a Justice tells me that they only believe the strict letter of the Constitution — that means that they possibly don’t mean — believe in — a right to privacy that may not be perfectly enumerated in the Constitution but, you know, that I think is there.

I mean, the right to marry who you please isn’t in the Constitution. But I think all of us assume that if a state decided to pass a law saying, ‘Brian, you can’t marry the woman you love,’ that you’d think that was unconstitutional. Well, where does that come from? I think it comes from a right to privacy. That may not be listed in the Constitution but is implied by the structure of the Constitution.

So I can have that conversation with a judge. Now if it was a conservative who was listening to me right then says, ‘See? You know, he wants to allow the Court to legislate.’ Ninety-nine percent of cases the Constitution is actually gonna be clear. Ninety-nine percent of the cases are statutes or congressional intent is gonna be clear. But there are gonna be one percent, less than one percent of real hard cases.

WILLIAMS: Second Amendment last term.

OBAMA: Second Amendment last term is a great example, where the language of the Second Amendment is not perfectly clear. I believe that the Second Amendment is actually an individual right. I think that’s the better interpretation. You can make the other argument. And so I can have those kinds of discussions with a Justice without getting into the particulars of — is Roe versus Wade, as currently outlined, exactly what you believe? Or do you believe that the DC gun law should have been overturned? And I think Sen. McCain, if ends up being the nominee [sic], could have those same conversations as well.

Speaking of the Second Amendment, Dave Kopel has written the Gunning for Victory
Second Amendment voter guide.
Kopel asks,

Will the Second Amendment still have enough friends in Congress to defeat the anti-rights agenda that a President Obama would push? The answer may depend on how much volunteer time Second Amendment defenders devote to key congressional races in the next several days.

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