The question had to do with judges. Mr. McCain's answer can viewed below:
All those people clapping are sadly misinformed about legislating from the bench. If they knew of some of the statutory laws of this country, they would DEMAND that judges legislate from the bench by declaring laws unconstitutional. Here's one such issue I suspect that most Americans would appreciate that a judge legislate from the bench:
(1) to fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual, or otherwise to discriminate against any individual with respect to his compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment, because of such individual's race, color, religion, sex, or national origin; or
(2) to limit, segregate, or classify his employees or applicants for employment in any way which would deprive or tend to deprive any individual of employment opportunities or otherwise adversely affect his status as an employee, because of such individual's race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.
That sounds all nice and dandy, don't it? It makes it against the law for any employer to discriminate against his employee because of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin of said employee. Well, here's the part that most Americans don't know:
(1) A charge under this section shall be filed within one hundred and eighty days after the alleged unlawful employment practice occurred and notice of the charge (including the date, place and circumstances of the alleged unlawful employment practice) shall be served upon the person against whom such charge is made within ten days thereafter ...
And guess what happens when you don't file that charge within 180 days, folks? You LOSE.
That last link will bring you to a case called Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire Company. From the dissent of Justice Ginsburg:
Lilly Ledbetter was a supervisor at Goodyear Tire and Rubber's plant in Gadsden, Alabama, from 1979 until her retirement in 1998. For most of those years, she worked as an area manager, a position largely occupied by men. Initially, Ledbetter's salary was in line with the salaries of men performing substantially similar work. Over time, however, her pay slipped in comparison to the pay of male area managers with equal or less seniority. By the end of 1997, Ledbetter was the only woman working as an area manager and the pay discrepancy between Ledbetter and her 15 male counterparts was stark: Ledbetter was paid $3,727 per month; the lowest paid male area manager received $4,286 per month, the highest paid $5,236.
Justice Alito, the kind of judge that Senator McCain wants to appoint to the bench, wrote the opinion for the Court ... here's the compassion that strict constructionists have for us ordinary folk:
Ledbetter should have filed an EEOC charge within 180 days after each allegedly discriminatory pay decision was made and communicated to her. She did not do so, and the paychecks that were issued to her during the 180 days prior to the filing of her EEOC charge do not provide a basis for overcoming that prior failure.
How many of y'all know what your co-workers make? Yeah, I thought so ... ain't it scary that Senator McCain wants to put more Alitos on the bench?
