Hey hey, ho ho, multiple regression analysis has got to go!

Den ærede senator fra Commonwealth of Massachussets, fhv. Vietnam-demonstrant m.m., John F. Kerry (D), sammenfattede i den forgangne uge sit syn på dommer Samuel Alito, som efter alt at dømme idag (tirsdag) bliver bekræftet af Senatet som nyt medlem af US Supreme Court, herunder betydningen af moderne samfundsvidenskabelige metoder:

“[Judge Alito’s] record envisions an America where police may shoot and kill an unarmed boy to stop him from running away with a stolen purse; where federal agents point guns at ordinary citizens during a raid, even after no sign of resistance; where the FBI may install a camera where you sleep on the promise that they won’t turn it on unless the informant is in the room; where a black man may be sentenced to death by an all-white jury for killing a white man absent any kind of multiple regression analysis or other analysis of potential discrimination; and where police may search–I paraphrased that last sentence; it reads precisely ‘absent a multiple regression analysis showing discrimination’–and where police may search what a warrant, may search and define what a warrant permits and then some. This is not the America we know, he says, nor is it the America we aspire to be.”

Ja, det er vist en meget “fair and balanced” opsummering af juristens synspunkter …  Her er iøvrigt hvad Kerrys seniorkollega, Senator Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) sagde om Robert Bork i 1987, da denne blev ‘borked’:

“Robert Bork’s America is a land in which women would be forced into back alley abortions, blacks would sit in segregated lunch counters, rogue police could break down citizens’ doors in midnight raids, schoolchildren could not be taught about evolution, writers and artists could be censored at the whim of government, and the doors of the federal courts would be shut on the fingers of million of citizens.”

Der er vist ikke noget at sige til, at amerikanerne refererer til Senatet som “the World’s greatest deliberative body” …

Hat tip: James Taranto fra OpinionJournal.com!

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.