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Be warned. This is probably very messy and slightly incoherent. But I'm still reeling from the Salon article mentioned below.
So for the past few months or so Congress has been almost ablaze and abuzz with the controversy over the appointment of a few extremist Christian Right judges to the Federal Appeals Court bench. 7 of these 10 judges have already been sent to the Senate Floor for nomination last year, only to be blocked by Democrats then. Undeterred, Bush turned around and sent them through again, only armed this time with the threats of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (who intends to make a presidential bid in 2008 and is a shill for the Extreme Religious Right). Frist is threatening Democrats with what Republicans named 'the nuclear option' (or more recently, in their usual Orwellian tiptoeing, the 'constitutional option'. Because people didn't like the sound of nukular).
First, just to give you an idea of how dire the opposition of these judges is, I recommend you read this article on the two WORST examples, Priscilla Owen and Janice Brown.
Janice Brown is on record as having said FDR was a socialist. She believes that the government has no business in people's lives (ironic for a judge to say that), believes that job safety laws, environmental protections, practically every law changed since 1937 as a matter of fact, is unconstitutional. She holds that the separation of church and state is also unconstitutional and has equated Social Security with cannibalism. She's the worst of the arch-conservatives, with a history of explosive, anti-mainstream, pro-business rulings.
Priscilla Owen is also a rabidly pro-business judge, having ruled on several occasions in the favor of corporations which have contributed to her election campaigns, never recusing herself when anyone of them have entered her courtroom. The woman is as crooked as they come.
Back to the issue at hand. You have to keep in mind, these appointments to federal courts are lifetime appointments, and to put it succinctly, gateways to the Supreme Court. Were SC judges like Renqhuist or O'Connor to retire, as they've mumbled about in past years, these would be the people jockeying for their seats. So be it on just a federal circuit level or the highest level, these judges and their interpretation of law and of the Constitution will stick, for decades. Moderate judges, who will rule by the law and not by fitting to their own views, are essential.
Because of the extreme right wing nature of judges like Owen and Brown, the pressure is collosal on the GOP to get them approved and get them approved quickly. The Religious Right looks at appeals court rulings in favor of gay marriage and the recent Supreme Court strikedown of anti-sodomy laws as a rallying cry for change in the judiciary. Unfortunately for Republicans, there is a weapon available to the Democrats trying to oppose these nominations: the filibuster. Basically, under current Senate rules, "senators in the minority can indefinitely delay a floor vote on judges -- or on just about anything else, for that matter -- by engaging in extended debate."
I could go into a summary on what the filibuster means and how the nuclear option will take a wrecking ball to any minority party's attempts to filibuster... but this Salon article, breaks down the whole complicated (and man is it complicated) issue into small, digestable morsels and does a far better job of it than I would. If Frist pulls the nuclear option, it will set a dangerous precedent for the future, stripping the minority party (be it Republican or Democrat) of any real ability to oppose the machinations of the majority.
Chilling stuff from a party seeking complete and absolute power in government. |
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