ABSTRACT
Edelman, a former Georgetown University law professor and husband of Marian Wright Edelman of the Childrens' Defense Fund, is reported to be President Clinton's choice to fill a vacancy on the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Edelman thinks the poor have a right not to be poor--America is rich enough to give every needy person cash payments equal to two-thirds of the poverty line, plus housing subsidies, food stamps, Medicaid and other subsidies. The problem is that Edelman doesn't really think these views are the normal, debatable stuff of democratic politics. He thinks they should be imposed by judges because not giving substantial cash payments to the poor is unconstitutional, a violation of due process. It is the rise of post-Brown romanticism-not the usual liberal-conservative split-that has made hearings on Supreme Court nominees so important. Given the current law-school culture, the problem is likely to get worse.
