I’m all for making sure that a potential justice is in sufficiently good health to do the job. Acute medical conditions may well be a disqualifying factor for a candidate for the Supreme Court – but what about chronic conditions? Take this piece on Judge Sotomayor – and what I see as an overblown concern about a medical condition that does not seem to have hindered her career up to this point.

As President Obama approaches his first Supreme Court appointment, the question of how much scrutiny he should give to a candidate's health could rise to the surface once more.

A frontrunner for the post, Judge Sonia Sotomayor of U. S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, is a Type One diabetic. It is one of the more compelling aspects to an already compelling biography. And while hardly a debilitating disease -- indeed, recent medical advancements have made it quite manageable to live with -- there remain enough late-in-life health implications to have sparked debate in legal, political and medical circles. Just how relevant are medical issues to Sotomayor's or any other potential Supreme Court nomination?

"It is obligatory [to look at this]" said Jeffrey Toobin, a legal analyst for CNN and author of "The Nine: Inside The Secret World of the Supreme Court." "The issue of duration of service for a Supreme Court nominee is critical to any president, and thus health and medical issues are very much at the forefront of their considerations... It would be irresponsible for any president not to make the health of the nominee a major subject of concern, because presidents want decades of service from their nominees."

Added another political operative who has worked on judicial nominations in the past: "I don't even think it is very sensitive. I think it is just obvious.... It is part of who we are. And so I think you find that there is almost in this day and age, there is almost no area of inquiry that is out of bounds."

Now do I think that there is a place to ask questions about Sotomayor’s diabetes? Perhaps, but only to the degree that there is any evidence that she is suffering from some seriously debilitating effects of the disease. As a Type Two diabetic, I know that there are possible complications to both forms of our disease, and that these potential future complications can be serious or even life threatening. But for most of us, they are not likely to be – yesterday I sat with an 85 year old woman who has been coping quite nicely with her Type Two diabetes for a couple of decades. My Type One cousin is a successful hospital administrator in a major Midwestern city who has progressed from insulin shots as a child to a pump as an adult to a pancreas transplant several years ago – she has been told that she can expect to live a normal lifespan with no real diminution of her ability to work or otherwise lead an active life.

Am I a fan of Sonia Sotomayor as a potential nominee to the High Court? No, but do think she may be better than some of the other options on Obama’s radar. But regardless of my lack of enthusiasm for the prospect of her becoming a justice, I don’t see her diabetes as something that should disqualify her in the eyes of the President – or during any confirmation fight. Given medical advances over the last few decades, diabetes is simply not a serious enough medical condition to keep her off the bench – as her service on both the district and circuit court levels has amply proved.

Posted by: Greg at 08:18 AM | Comments (31) | Add Comment
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