Judges cannot be legal automata. They assess law within the context of their experience and their other assumptions and commitments.

Loosely speaking, we might distinguish between right empathy and left empathy.

The empathy of the right: Having understanding of and compassion for the difficulties of the rich, the powerful, the privileged, and all those whose status would be harmed by legal decisions that took into account historical and social contexts.

The empathy of the left: Having an understanding of how the realities of the lives of the poor, the disenfranchised, and those who lack social privilege can be impacted by the power of the rich, powerful, and the privileged through the law and making sure that legal decisions account for the historical context in which they are made.

In a nearly unanimous vote the US Senate bet that their constituents were cowards. They decided that Americans would not be brave enough to accept Guantanamo detainees to be held in US prisons. The Senate concluded that rather than uphold American values of justice and ideals of due process, their constituents would prefer to continue to operate Guantanamo and undermine our international credibility. I hope they bet wrong, but I'm not so sure.

It appears that Ithaca College is unwilling to tolerate the notion that there are Israeli extremists who do bad things to Palestinians in Hebron and that this is an obstacle to peace.

My daughter, Emily McNeill, who is an alumna of Ithaca College, wrote a piece for IC View, the alumni periodical, in which she described some of her experience in Hebron this summer and suggested that the failure of Israeli authorities to control settler violence will have negative impacts going forward.

The editor of IC View has issued a public apology and the President of Ithaca College has denounced the publication of the article.

Comments on the website are decidedly against Prexy.