"You should obey god, not the law!" scream the Schindler lustful.
Translation: "God doesn't tell you what to do, he tells us and
*we* tell you what to do!"
If "god" really existed, why does it waste time on intermediaries,
especially when Greer held the power of office?
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1317&ncid=742&e=12&u=/ucas/20050403/cm_ucas/religiousextremistsseektheirownactivistjudges
Bob Dog
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Divine retribution is an idol threat.
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RELIGIOUS EXTREMISTS SEEK THEIR OWN 'ACTIVIST' JUDGES
Sat Apr 2, 8:25 PM ET
By Cynthia Tucker
Friends of Florida judge George Greer describe him as a low-key
conservative Christian, a Republican, a family man, a dog lover.
Appellate courts have found over and over again that Greer
simply followed the law in deciding a sad and controversial
case. But for that sin, the Pinellas County Circuit Court judge
was invited out of his Southern Baptist Church.
Apparently, Greer's critics, including his pastor, didn't like
his rulings in the Terri Schiavo case, which landed in his
courtroom in 1998. They wanted him to be an activist judge -- a
jurist who ignored the law and ruled according to the passions
of a group of partisans.
Ultraconservatives want you to believe the term "activist judge"
applies to a group of determined liberals whose rulings have
overturned historic precedent, undermined morality and defied
common sense. But the controversy that erupted around Schiavo,
who died on Thursday, ought to remind us once and for all what
"activist judge" really means: a jurist whose rulings dissatisfy
a right-wing political constituency.
Over the next few months, you'll hear the term "activist judge"
often as President Bush nominates justices to the U.S. Supreme
Court. The president could end up appointing as many as four.
Chief Justice William Rehnquist, 80, is ailing with cancer; John
Paul Stevens is also an octogenarian. Sandra Day O'Connor and
Ruth Bader Ginsburg are cancer survivors in their 70s.
With so many likely vacancies, ultraconservatives see an
opportunity to drive from the bench any semblance of fealty to
the law or the U.S. Constitution. They claim that judges have
become the tool of an outlandish liberal fringe that has
violated the graves of the Founding Fathers. When right-wing
talk-show hosts and U.S. senators denounce judicial activism,
they conjure up images of jurists who terrorize the God-fearing,
coddle criminals and would -- according to one crazed campaign
memo passed around during last year's presidential campaign --
outlaw the Bible.
The next time you hear those claims, think of Judge Greer, whose
politics tilt to the right. He is among the targets of
ultraconservative ire.
For that matter, think of the current Supreme Court -- hardly a
bastion of liberalism. Its justices declined to intervene in the
Schiavo case because they could find no legitimate reason to do
so.
While the rift between Michael Schiavo and his in-laws, Bob and
Mary Schindler, is depressing, family conflict is almost a way
of life in America. Courts are called upon often to settle
family disputes over money, children and property. Florida law
makes clear that a spouse has the right to decide end-of-life
issues, and, after testimony from several people, Greer upheld
Schiavo's claim that his wife didn't want to be kept alive
through artificial means.
It is perfectly understandable that the Schindlers were unhappy
with his ruling. As grieving parents, they wanted to believe,
contrary to the judgment of several physicians, that their
daughter might one day be miraculously restored.
But the attacks on the judiciary by the Schindlers' supporters --
including an attempted end-run by an activist Congress -- made
it clear that a minority of religious extremists have no respect
for the law and no understanding of the separation of powers on
which this government was founded.
Among those who missed their high school civics class,
apparently, were Congress and the president. In one of many
rulings turning down the Schindlers' request for intervention,
an Atlanta federal court judge chastised the executive and
legislative branches for overreaching.
"Congress chose to overstep constitutional boundaries into the
province of the judiciary. Such an act cannot be countenanced,"
wrote Judge Stanley Birch, who was appointed by former President
George H.W. Bush. Hardly a liberal activist.
The current President Bush has already made clear that his idea
of a model chief justice is Clarence Thomas, who has no respect
for judicial precedent. But even Thomas might not satisfy the
extremists who chastise Judge Greer. They will be satisfied with
nothing less than a judiciary steeped in the same narrow
religious views they want to impose on the nation.
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