Marathons and Supreme Court Nominees

In case you don’t follow such things, Supreme Court Justice David Souter has announced his resignation after almost 20 years on the Court. President Obama will soon announce (likely next week) his selection to replace Justice Souter. (Note: the nominee will have to receive at least 51 Senate votes to be confirmed)

Regardless of whether you care or not about such things, I would like to direct your attention to a quote from then Senator Obama as it relates to the confirmation of now Supreme Court Chief Judge John Roberts.

[W]hile adherence to legal precedent and rules of statutory or constitutional construction will dispose of 95 percent of the cases that come before a court, so that both a Scalia and a Ginsburg will arrive at the same place most of the time on those 95 percent of the cases -- what matters on the Supreme Court is those 5 percent of cases that are truly difficult. In those cases, adherence to precedent and rules of construction and interpretation will only get you through the 25th mile of the marathon. That last mile can only be determined on the basis of one's deepest values, one's core concerns, one's broader perspectives on how the world works, and the depth and breadth of one's empathy.

Again, I don’t really care how your feel about judicial nomination or judicial philosophy—there is another blog somewhere for that—but I like the part about the last mile being dependent on your value and depth and character; even if he failed to mention the .2. Plus, it isn’t often that my two worlds collide.

On a running note my 6M run last night was a disaster. Temperature was 60 degrees but it was cloudy and windy and supposed to rain. I had wanted to keep it around 6:40s or low 6:50s. FAIL! I overdressed, wearing a black Smartwool long sleeve shirt and a hat—both of which were absolutely unnecessary because it was 60 degrees—and a short sleeve shirt over it. The rain never came, just the humidity. The course is also a very hilly course. My average came to 7:05/M.

My poor clothing choices didn’t matter, even had I not overdressed I doubt I would have hit this run on target; tired legs and difficulty breathing again. Ominous runs these past two days.