Talk:Q11107
Autodescription — Sonia Sotomayor (Q11107)
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Is she a politician?[edit]
@Danrok: and I are discussing whether Supreme Court justices are politicians. See https://www.wikidata.org/w/index.php?title=Q11107&oldid=prev&diff=607765412. I thought I'd bring the conversation to the item talk page rather than userspace. Danrok noted on my talk page: 'Oxford dictionary: "A person who is professionally involved in politics, especially as a holder of an elected office." Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States are elected to office by the senate, after being nominated by Obama, or whichever president. After 4 days of Judiciary Committee hearings, Sonia Sotomayor was confirmed by a Democratic Senate in a 68-31 vote.' This is a good point. Are Senate confirmations equivalent to elections, such that confirmed persons are considered elected officials?
I don't think so. Justices are appointed directly by the President with advice and consent by the Senate. The Senate vote reflects their consent, but that's no more an election than any of their other Senate votes. Justices are appointed officials, not elected officials.
Or, might a politician be defined more broadly than elected officials to include anyone who professionally pursues political questions? Even if we do so, the Supreme Court article states that the Court "may act only within the context of a case, in which it has jurisdiction. The Court does not have power to decide political questions".
Because justices are appointed officials who don't decide political questions, it seems reasonable to not state that they're politicians. Runner1928 (talk) 22:54, 12 December 2017 (UTC)
- @Runner1928:In the USA these judges are nominated by the president, then they're elected by the senate, before being appointed. In any case, the election aspect is not that relevant given that not all politicians are elected. That's just something that happens in modern democracies. See, hereditary peer (Q808719), these are unelected politicians in the UK.
Take a look at this [1], it is within the "Federal political office-holders in the United States" category, quite correctly.
In simple terms politicians are those in power who get to make decisions that affect the rest of us, or some of us. Danrok (talk) 01:10, 13 December 2017 (UTC)