President Obama broached the topic of "empathy" when he said he wanted a Supreme Court justice who is empathetic. I very much appreciate his approach in regards to empathy and the law; however, others don't.
From what I've seen from various news sources is that Republicans seem to have some sort of "hang-up" when it comes to the empathy thing. My understanding is that, in general, they want someone who will "interpret the law rather than make the law" (or policy as the case may be). They want someone who rules "based upon law rather than emotions".
Well, I have a thing or two to say about that in a short story of an experience I had before a judge in San Antonio, Texas. See below.
To make a long story short, I got caught doing 35 mph in a 20 mph school zone. That's what I did. Got a ticket.
Something didn't seem right. I couldn't figure out why this was happening to me. Normally I drive slower than most drivers. What went wrong here?
Well, I went back to the "crime scene" to re-inact what happened - to see what I did or didn't see. It turned out that there was a big orange sign that said "road crew ahead", which I saw on my approach, that was placed right in front of the school zone warning sign such that I couldn't see the 20 mph school zone sign.
So I went home, got my camera, and took pictures of the road-crew-ahead sign that was in visual line with the school zone sign as would be seen by drivers.
Then I went to court with my photos to fight the ticket.
Now this is anything but a perfect analogy, but as I see it, a judge deemed acceptable to those who advocate not using empathy when interpreting the law would have said -- "well son, you did 35 in a 20 so the ticket stands. That's the law. Cut and dried. Get out of my court room".
On the other hand a judge with empathy could have said (without even mentioning the word empathy) "This isn't right. I'm dismissing your ticket".
And that's exactly what happened. Fortunately I had an empathetic (female, not that it matters?) judge.
------
As an aside, the school zone sign had no warning lights on it when I got my ticket. I told the judge that it would be helpful if there were flashing lights on the school zone sign.
Guess what? A few months later, flashing lights appeared on the school zone sign! I'm not sure if the lights had anything to do with the case I made to the judge, but it appears to me the judge just might have had enough "empathy", not only to dismiss my ticket, but to have made things happen to get the sign policy changed.
In other words, rather than simply interpreting the law, with no empathy for either me or the school kids who would benefit from a flashing light, the empathetic judge made the community a better place than a judge with little or no empathy would have.
Personally, I see little or no downside to being empathetic vis a vis the law. And I see a lot of downside to being non-empathetic and cold-hearted vis a vis interpreting the law.
Thank God for empathetic judges. Just think how many kids might have been saved from accidents by flashing lights on a school zone sign had it not been for one empathetic judge here in San Antonio.
My hope is that people will begin to appreciate the genius of Obama. He broached a very important topic - empathy - crucial to a national discussion of our values.