Criticizing how conservatives have made judicial "empathy" a code word for "activist judges," Thomas B. Colby rehabilitates (pdf) Obama's praise of the concept:
Empathy is not compassion for the oppressed, or for anyone else, for that matter. Nor is it the capacity to feel the emotions of only the downtrodden. It is, rather, the capacity to understand the perspective and feel the emotions of others—all others. President Obama has reiterated many times that he understands the "basic idea of empathy" to be exactly that: the ability to "imagine standing in [others’] shoes, imagine looking through their eyes." A judge who exercises the ability to empathize will surely do so with the poor, the weak, and the little guy. But she will also empathize with the rich, the powerful, and the big guy….
President Obama’s point is not that judges should ignore law in favor of sympathy, but rather that the ability to render justice necessitates not only an ability to grapple with complex legal theories and dense technical footnotes, but also an ability to "understand and identify with people’s"—all people’s— "hopes and struggles."
The Dish 