Friday, April 22, 2005

The leaders of the Family Research Council and Focus on the Family are openly calling for the destruction of US courts

Perkins is heard saying, "There's more than one way to skin a cat, and there's more than one way to take a black robe off the bench." He went on to say that the power-mad, court-bashing Republicans in Congress are considering strategies for destroying courts they don't like by defunding them. He said, "What they're thinking of is not only the fact of just making these courts go away and re-creating them the next day but also defunding them....just take away the bench, all of his staff, and he's just sitting out there with nothing to do."
James Dobson has even bigger ideas: simply legislate courts out of existence entirely. Congress does have the power to set up the Federal Judiciary according to Article 3 of the US Constitution, but it isn't clear whether a court can simply be legislated out of existence, considering that judges are appointed for life. Dobson apparently didn't read that footnote in findlaw that might throw a wrench in his scheme when he said, "Very few people know this, that the Congress can simply disenfranchise a court. They don't have to fire anybody or impeach them or go through that battle. All they have to do is say the 9th Circuit doesn't exist anymore, and it's gone."
Why, exactly, isn't this front-page news? These two men are attacking the basis of our protection from tyranny; they're attacking the courts. They're saying that justice under the law doesn't matter; or rather, they're saying that the only justice under the law is that which they command. These men are trying to exterminate the independence of the judiciary, a principle that has generally served this country well since its inception. When they attack our courts, they attack democracy itself. They attack our system of government. They attack our nation. They attack us. Why isn't the media bringing this assault to the nation's attention?
Why do James Dobson and Tony Perkins hate America?

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