R E S P O N S E S
C L I N T O N	D O L E

As I have over the last four years, I intend to select individuals with outstanding capabilities, a broad array of professional experience, and who reflect the incredible diversity of our nation. The Supreme Court affects the lives of all Americans personally and deeply. A Supreme Court Justice should have the heart and spirit, the talent and discipline, the knowledge, common sense, and wisdom to translate the hopes of the American people, as presented in the cases before it, into an enduring body of constitutional law that will preserve our most cherished values that are enshrined in that Constitution and, at the same time, enable the American people to move forward. That is why I am proud of my two appointees to the Supreme Court -- two outstanding jurists who continue to be forces for consensus-building by bringing people of diverse views together for justice's sake, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer. I will continue to select for the bench persons with unquestionably good judgment, excellent education, and wide-ranging experience.

The next few years pose the possibility of three Supreme Court Justices resigning. The direction of the court needs to be moved back to the center. In recent years, the Court has lost focus of its primary purpose -- to enforce and interpret the Constitution. Instead, it has become a regulator of social agendas. I have been asked on several occasions if I have a litmus test for judges. I do. My litmus test for judges is that they be intolerant of outrage; that their passion is not to amend, but to interpret the Constitution, that they are restrained in regard to those who live within the law, and strict with those who break it. And for those who say that I should not make President Clinton's liberal judicial appointments an issue in this campaign, I have a simple response. I have heard your argument. The motion is denied. I save my respect for the Constitution, not for those who would ignore it, violate it or replace it with conceptions of their own fancy. My administration will zealously protect civil and constitutional rights while never forgetting that our primary duty is protecting law abiding citizens.

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