Amidst all the news coverage over the death of William Rehnquist, the retirement of Sandra Day O'Connor and now the confirmation of John Roberts to be Chief Justice, I quote the words of noted liberal advocate Hodding Carter III, who, at the time of the Bork Confirmation Battle in 1987 said "For
30 years, liberals have been relying on the least democratic branch of government to get their agenda through.",and the Princeton University professor who said of the Court's 1996 decision Romer vs. Evans, in which the
Court struck an amendment to the Colorado constitution passed by the voters of Colorado that would have barred gay rights laws "the social liberals contempt for democracy, so long a matter of practice, has been elevetaed to the status of theory." And I propose an amendment to the U.S. Constitution
whose time is long overdue-to provide for popular control of the Federal
Judiciary, allowing the voters to recall Federal Judges and Supreme Court
Justices.
In the summer of 2003, much of the nation's attention was focused on California, where less than a year after he barely won re-election, then Governor Gray Davis was recalled by many of the same people who voted for him-exit polls revealed 25% of Democrats voted to recall him. Those familiar
with California's recent history know that Gray Davis was not the first California official to be recalled. In 1986 the voters of California recalled then
Chief Justice Rose Bird and two other kustices from their state supreme court.
Their offense was that they had been too lenient with criminals, Rose Bird voted to reverse in every death penalty case despite the fact that capital punishment had been reinstated by the voters of California in 1978, and there
were complaints about legislating from the bench, complaints from the business community about badly written decisions that muddied the waters in
such critical fields as contract law and product liability. And former Governor
Jerry Brown, who had initially appointed Rose Bird, has publicly said he regrets
doing so. (Cf Eisenhower's comment that he made two big mistakes as President, and they were both sitting on the Supreme Court.
In 1996 the voters of Tennessee recalled on Penny White from their Supreme Court. As an appeals and then Supreme Court Justice, Penny White was likewise to concerned with the criminal and not with the victims or society as a whole. One of the active in the No on Penny White movement was a man named Jack Collins. He was the father of a young woman Marine who was brutally raped and killed outside the Memphis Naval Air Station, Penny White voted to overturn the death penalty imposed on her killer. is what he had to say:
"We got the message out and the people got aroused. Those folks, they get life tenure, they get all academic and theoretical about life, they don't
feel the grief,they don't taste the blood, they don't whiff the sulfur, they say it's not part of their, I say not....you don't have to be part of the struggle but you have to understand it."
I don't think Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy of Ronald Reagon could have said it
better.
30 years, liberals have been relying on the least democratic branch of government to get their agenda through.",and the Princeton University professor who said of the Court's 1996 decision Romer vs. Evans, in which the
Court struck an amendment to the Colorado constitution passed by the voters of Colorado that would have barred gay rights laws "the social liberals contempt for democracy, so long a matter of practice, has been elevetaed to the status of theory." And I propose an amendment to the U.S. Constitution
whose time is long overdue-to provide for popular control of the Federal
Judiciary, allowing the voters to recall Federal Judges and Supreme Court
Justices.
In the summer of 2003, much of the nation's attention was focused on California, where less than a year after he barely won re-election, then Governor Gray Davis was recalled by many of the same people who voted for him-exit polls revealed 25% of Democrats voted to recall him. Those familiar
with California's recent history know that Gray Davis was not the first California official to be recalled. In 1986 the voters of California recalled then
Chief Justice Rose Bird and two other kustices from their state supreme court.
Their offense was that they had been too lenient with criminals, Rose Bird voted to reverse in every death penalty case despite the fact that capital punishment had been reinstated by the voters of California in 1978, and there
were complaints about legislating from the bench, complaints from the business community about badly written decisions that muddied the waters in
such critical fields as contract law and product liability. And former Governor
Jerry Brown, who had initially appointed Rose Bird, has publicly said he regrets
doing so. (Cf Eisenhower's comment that he made two big mistakes as President, and they were both sitting on the Supreme Court.
In 1996 the voters of Tennessee recalled on Penny White from their Supreme Court. As an appeals and then Supreme Court Justice, Penny White was likewise to concerned with the criminal and not with the victims or society as a whole. One of the active in the No on Penny White movement was a man named Jack Collins. He was the father of a young woman Marine who was brutally raped and killed outside the Memphis Naval Air Station, Penny White voted to overturn the death penalty imposed on her killer. is what he had to say:
"We got the message out and the people got aroused. Those folks, they get life tenure, they get all academic and theoretical about life, they don't
feel the grief,they don't taste the blood, they don't whiff the sulfur, they say it's not part of their, I say not....you don't have to be part of the struggle but you have to understand it."
I don't think Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy of Ronald Reagon could have said it
better.
