With the first Republican primary debate coming up, we fully expected to use today’s link to focus on it. Instead, we came across this column about Supreme Court ethics and had to abandon our previous plans. Written by a self-professed admirer of Justice Sonya Sotomayor, one could safely assume the piece defended her behavior (misusing staff to pump up her book sales) by using the billionaire boondoggles enjoyed by Justices Alito and Thomas as cover. One would be wrong. The author, law professor Steven Lubet, uses his space to call Sotomayor to account for her actions. 

In our partisan times, Lubet’s position might seem incongruous — why would a fan of Justice Sotomayor give the right ammunition by choosing to criticize her — but his stance is by far the most consistent we’ve seen on the matter. As Lubet says in his closing sentence, “We cannot fairly criticize our nemeses for conduct we accept among our own.” Hard to argue with that. Not just because it’s true, but because it calls on us to hold ourselves to a higher standard.

Lubet’s admonition should guide every politician and commentator. Of course, it won’t. The political class is too busy trying to score short-term points to care about long-term gains. But that shouldn’t keep us from following his example. With primary season kicking off in earnest tomorrow night, we owe it to ourselves to try.