CORRESPONDENT OF THE DAY

Are Judges Politicians Who Sit in Court?
Editor, Times-Dispatch: Ellen Goodman's Op/Ed column, "Politics and the Identity Dance," explains how personal experience can affect perceptions. She noted former Vice President Dick Cheney's comments on his daughter's same-sex marriage and the identity politics of her native Boston. She then contrasted these examples of goodness with criticisms of Judge Sonia Sotomayor, prospective justice of the Supreme Court.

Goodman forgets her elementary-school civics courses, where surely she was taught the differences between politicians and judges. It is absolutely proper for a member of Congress representing ethnic constituents to guard, zealously, the ethnic and other "identity" interests of the people who elected that representative. It is absolutely improper for a judge to do this.

Throughout American history the work of judges has been separate from politics. Politics is local, but the law is the same for all of us. Since the law is independent from the judges who apply it, the judge's gender, etc., should not be a factor in interpreting or applying that law. If personal experience controlled, the law would differ based on the judge's personal traits and like cases no longer would be decided alike. This would be a major departure from our historic practice and explains why Judge Sotomayor's comments on the superior judicial decision-making ability of the "wise Latina" are, and should be, controversial. This also is why President Obama's focus on "empathy," as opposed to the more traditional qualifications, is noteworthy.

By her column, Goodman demonstrates ignorance or disregard for the fundamental differences between the political and the judicial in our government. Goodman, President Obama, and, possibly, Judge Sotomayor, reveal by their words the philosophy that a judge in the essence is a politician who sits in court instead of in Congress. This is a destructive and ahistorical belief that should not be accepted. W. R. Baldwin III. Midlothian.