Race, Gender and the Supreme Court – WSJ

Racially tinged? We guess that s what you write if you want to accuse someone of racism but know it would be a canard to say so. Mr. Shapiro was endorsing a minority candidate in his tweet, albeit an Asian who is a man. He has also apologized for his ugly choice of words. But the racial tinge was applied by Mr. Biden in his criteria for his judicial selection. Is it taboo to comment on the use of a racial litmus test that a President has himself made explicit?

The hilarious part is that, after she lambastes Mr. Shapiro (and us), Ms. Marcus ends up agreeing with most of our point. Would I be more comfortable if Biden hadn t been quite so explicit? Yes. Partly because it carries an aura of unfairness to announce that no one will be considered who does not meet an announced racial test, she writes.

So it s okay to use a racial test for judges as long as it s not explicit, but anyone other than Ruth Marcus who criticizes the explicit racial test is racially tinged. What she s really saying is that conservatives are right in their criticism but only liberals can say so.

via www.wsj.com

This is so ridiculous. Obviously, Ilya Shapiro was saying the pledged Biden selection, whoever she was, would be the lesser candidate because she would be less qualified *as a Supreme Court Justice* than Sri Srinivasan is. What is it Shapiro is supposed to have said, anyway? Post columnist Ruth Marcus does not say; she just insinuates it must, or I suppose might be (?), some sort of racial slur. Of course, there is no interpretation of what Marcus says that is other than it is an attack in bad faith. Not that that matters any more.

This is why dueling should perhaps be brought back. Or at least lawsuits for libel against those in the media. That is, we should absolutely get rid of NY Times v. Sullivan. After some gutless wonder like Marcus accused Shapiro of being a racist, he could sue her and hang her out to dry, and other “columnists” would think, ah, I wouldn’t want that to happen to me. Then they would take more care with their words. Who knows? It could happen.