Are we surprised? Today, Governor Deval Patrick will announce his choice to fill the vacant seat on the Supreme Judicial Court: jurist Margot Botsford, who shares his "liberal positions on controversial social issues such as abortion, the death penalty, and gay marriage, as well as on civil liberties." Botsford's husband, S. Stephen Rosenfeld, served in Michael Dukakis administration and "has been a campaign contributor to Patrick." See "Jurist Botsford seen as SJC pick," Boston Globe (7-26-07). We are told that she has an "intellectual grasp of legal issues."
Botsford is cited for her ruling in a high-profile case on "a controversial runway at Logan International Airport." She has the "intellectual firepower to handle some of the state's most complex cases," says a past president of the American Bar Association. Problem is that abortion and runways are not equivalent. In fact, abortion is quite simple: It's the pre-meditated murder of an innocent human being. Can Botsford handle that?
