Justice and emotions

Justice and emotions appear to be on the opposite end of spectrum, since much of us think that good judgments can be made only without any emotion, is not quite true. In fact it can be the opposite. Since justice originates from social justness which in turn requires mature emotional judgment and not lack of emotions. Those believing that lack of emotions is the way to make right judgment will find it hard to prove answers to the breadth of questions arising in our social interactions.

Consider the case of strip search of a school girl for possible carriage of illegal substances, can be just from one person's point of view while it can be wrong from others. Here the moral standards will make people differ in their opinions. But the ones who can transcend beyond the obvious or standard context to look into different point of views will be able to give a reasonable decision. Justice and morality go hand in hand and can't be separated, and hence requires the moral considerations of all sects of society and not just catering to a particular point of view. Otherwise society would lead to apartheids, repressions of some sects.

Having said that this requires extraordinary skills and discerning power of judges to make a call on a certain situations. The appointment of Mrs Sotomayer as chief justice of American supreme court can be viewed as positive light. She is famous for her meticulous examinations and considerations of finer points to arrive at a verdict which not only takes care of the finer point of views but also the toeing the line of the right wings.

So there will expectations of her about the dubious but crucial issues of abortions, gay marriage, detention standards of persons who are tried for terrorisms, which will require not only refraining from the right wing views of her predecessors but also sound emotional quotient. The actions needs to be seen.