What Women Want In a Supreme Court Nominee

In the Mel Gibson-Helen Hunt movie, "What Women Want," Gibson’s character is struck by lightning and can suddenly read women’s minds, a gift that he comes to enjoy and uses to learn what women want and provide it for them. Of course, he uses the power to his advantage as well but manages to do some good in the meantime.

The elusive desires of women are becoming clearer as we learn that the majority of Tea Partiers are actually women. And what do they want? A sound economic policy for our country, less government intrusion in our everyday lives, and a society that values life in all stages.

Women have made it easy for the Obama administration to read their minds, yet the policies put forth, or rather rammed through Congress, are anything but what women, and the majority of Americans for that matter, want.

Coming off of a year-long health care battle, President Obama now faces the extraordinary task of nominating a lifelong Supreme Court justice, one that will most likely have a final say on whether or not Obama’s unpopular healthcare reform legislation is constitutional.

President Obama’s actions thus far have pointed to a complete disregard for the Constitution. He has instituted government programs that will micromanage every aspect of our lives. Women make the majority of health care decisions in the family and don’t want the government intruding on that right.

I fear that the president will nominate someone who follows his own ideology and will ignore the Constitution in order to rubber-stamp their liberal political agenda. And that is a scary thought. The health care bill will look like a walk in the park compared to a court stacked with Obama appointees.

During his campaign, Obama said that a judge’s personal feelings can trump the fair application of the law. A recent Rasmussen poll asked whether or not a Supreme Court judge should make decisions according to what’s written in the Constitution or rather guided by a sense of fairness. A full 60% favored laws according to the precedents set in the Constitution.

And contrary to the leanings of supposed women’s rights groups like Planned Parenthood and the National Organization of Women, the majority of American women are pro-life, which corresponds to the founding principles of our great country.

Just because Justice Stevens was a liberal on the Court, it does not mean that President Obama must nominate another liberal to replace him. Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards is already salivating at the possibility of a justice who will “stand equally strong for” abortion on demand.

Obama sailed into office as a man expected to heal the nation, unite the political parties, and bring warm fuzzies to a country divided. On the contrary, since entering the White House our president and his policies have driven the country into an unfathomable divide, even lending to the uprising of the Tea Party movement, which brought out everyone from retirees to soccer moms -- and professionals who never cared about politics -- because Obama introduced policies that would destroy the lives they had built.

Women want a Justice who will uphold the Constitution, the right to life, and will preserve the family as a foundational cornerstone of our society. They don’t want someone who will legislate from the bench and uphold abhorrent legislation like the health care bill.

You don’t need to be struck by lightning to figure this out.

Penny Nance is the CEO of Concerned Women for America, which is the nation’s largest public policy women’s organization with chapters in every state.

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