What is the Law?

May 13, 2010
By Cal Thomas

We are told by no less than President Obama and supporters of his nominee to the Supreme Court, Elena Kagan, that she "loves the law."

I love my cat, but what does loving the law mean for the court, for the law and for the public?

What is the law? Is it a game played by insiders who went to Harvard (or Yale) law schools and the intellectual equivalent of theological debates over how many angels can dance on the head of a pin? Or is it something else, and if something else, what? the rest

In other words, if the law is a kind of judicial floating crap game, no one can say at any given moment where the "game" is being played or what the outcome might be. But law that is fixed and conforms people to a recognized standard promotes the general welfare -- as opposed to political interests -- and even increases civil liberties.

That's the kind of law I want and the kind of law the public should desire if it fully understood what is at stake in these debates about the Supreme Court. But Elena Kagan appears not to embrace this type of law. Neither is it how the progressive President Obama views the law. The president believes the law should serve his political goals.