What sort of a Judge do you want?

Increasingly, I think a dominant feature of Obama's Presidency is the lawlessness of it- he does whatever he wants, regardless of what the law says. Bankruptcy law is well developed, but he ignores it and instead resorts to threats and attacks using the office of power he is in. Private companies operate under business laws, but he attacks them to to force them to his will. Environmental law is lawless enough, but even the rules and guidelines there are not enough- Obama as President does whatever he wants, regardless of the law. And now, President Barack Obama is going to pick a Supreme Court Justice. Via powerlineblog:

President Obama made a short statement about the retirement of Justice Souter in which he outlined what he will be looking for in Souter's replacement. He stated, in part:

I will seek someone who understands that justice isn't about some abstract legal theory or footnote in a case book. It is also about how our laws affect the daily realities of people's lives -- whether they can make a living and care for their families; whether they feel safe in their homes and welcome in their own nation. I view that quality of empathy, of understanding and identifying with people's hopes and struggles as an essential ingredient for arriving as just decisions and outcomes.

I'm going to pose this very question to my students in my classroom- what kind of a Justice do they want on the Supreme Court-

A) someone who understands that justice isn't about some abstract legal theory or footnote in a case book, but about how our laws affect the daily realities of people's lives- a justice that has empathy and identifies with people's hopes and struggles (extreme liberal person who is a judge)

B) someone who understands legal theory and is deeply knowledgeable with all the footnotes and cases in our judicial history, and will focus not how how law affects people's lives but whether the law is valid and just- a justice that is learned and experienced in the law (a judge of any philosophy)

UPDATE: For a scary game, imagine that Obama appoints a justice as liberal as Souter became, who given the power and freedom of the Supreme Court becomes more liberal yet. See this fun graph via the New York Times to see the evolution of justices.