 Raoul Lowery Contreras'columns are syndicated by the New York Times Syndicate, New American News service. |
Posted on 06/29/2002 10:13:07 AM PDT by Jean S
Three hundred and sixty nine days after President George W. Bush nominated two people to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals who have not been given a hearing by Democratic Senators, two senior 9th Circuit judges ruled that the words “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance are unconstitutional.
The Democrats have won a victory, won a Pyrrhic victory, a victory at too great a cost, perhaps.
Judging from the public outrage, and from the massive whining from most elected Democrats, the two judges, one a 79-year-old “senior status” judge and another a flaming septuagenarian liberal who is the husband of the head of the Southern California American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) may have unleashed the dogs of political war. A war that may topple the dictatorship of the proletariat run by Democratic Senators Tom Daschle, the Senate Majority Leader and Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy.
Not only have these two men stopped most of President Bush’s Court of Appeals judicial nominees in their tracks, but they have exposed the ugly anti-Hispanic bigotry that runs just below the surface of the Democratic Party, the same bigotry that runs in the strongest Democratic constituency against Israel and Jews.
Sure, the Democrats blah-blah to poverty and working poor Hispanics and kiss up to single women with gaggles of kids, but when the opportunity to truly support Hispanics comes about, they balk, instead, they support rich, white party hacks like Judges Breyer and Ginsburg of the Supreme Court. Neither of these undistinguished jurists seem headed towards the Oliver Wendell Holmes/Earl Warren Hall of Fame (both men were Republicans, by the way).
Not only did the Democrats totally ignore good Hispanic possibilities for the Supreme Court when they had two chances to put new justices on the Court during the Clinton Administration, they won’t even schedule a hearing on President Bush’s nominee to the D. C. Court of Appeals, Miguel Estrada, or for Bush’s two nominees to the 9th Circuit Court, one of whom is a woman.
The two judge decision declaring “under God” to be constitutionally forbidden highlights two things: One, the paucity of good judges on the Court of Appeals—which Estrada’s confirmation would partially cure; and, secondly, the emergence of Judge Ferdinand Fernandez as a judicial star, and a Hispanic one at that.
Judge Fernandez is a Californian. He is a University of Southern California and Harvard Law alumnus and a former California Superior Court judge. President Ronald Reagan appointed him the federal district bench. President George H. W. Bush appointed him to the Court of Appeals in 1989.
He totally squashed the spurious thinking of the two no more “under God” judges by calling their reasoning “picayune” and lacking in pure merit. That is, he pointed out that the Supreme Court decisions they quoted as the basis for their decision were quoted improperly. They used observations called “dicta” rather than the actual decisions on the litigated questions.
Observations—dicta-don’t make law, they just are statements, observations, not law or precedent.
Those two words (under God), he wrote in his dissent, have no effect on establishing religion in the United States. He also pointed out that if this “under God” decision were to stand, patriotic songs like “God Bless America” would be banned from public stadiums or public schools. Then, he wrote, our “currency” which features the motto, “In God we trust” will be next.
Fernandez, then, is a hero to millions of Americans and must be ratcheted upwards on the list of four potential Hispanic Supreme Court nominees that President Bush will probably choose from as soon as an opening exists.
Certainly he is now the best known of the four potential Hispanic candidates. Miguel Estrada is now grouped with White House Counsel Alberto Gonzalez and 5th Circuit Judge Emilio Garza. The United States Senate has already confirmed Judges Garza and Fernandez twice for their district judgeships and for their Appeals Court judgeships.
I can’t wait to see what Democratic Senators Tom Daschle and Patrick Leahy will offer up as excuses to keep either one of these two accomplished men off the Supreme Court.
Considering that the two Democratic judges named to the Court by President William Jefferson Clinton were confirmed by a Republican Senate, and that Judges Garza or Fernandez, or both might have to face a Democrat Senate, we have to hope that the current Senate obstacle course is dismantled by American voters in November.
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Raoul Lowery Contreras'columns are syndicated by the New York Times Syndicate, New American News service. |
FMCDH
The hyprocrisy on vouchers also neatly high-lites the sacrifice of minorities for the milk and honey of NEA millions.
Party of the downtrodden my a$$.
Perfect...absolutely perfect!
The only way we can fail to accomplish this critical task is if we fail to get the truth to the voters in a way that they can understand.
Thought this might interest you, backhoe, my friend.
Vote.com is asking voters across America if the court's ruling was right or wrong
Don't be fooled, America! Yes, the Ninth District Court has delayed a ruling, but this is only a tactic to convince the enraged public that the issue is settled. But it isn't! There is an automatic 45 day waiting period before judgment so that parties can file appeals!
So, in reality, nothing has been taken off the table!
All votes on this online referendum at Vote.com, will automatically be sent to your congressional representative, senators and the president!
Tell a friend! Easy to email, just type www.vote.com
I'd have thought the DUers would be more worried about starting race wars. I just thought it was another example of how those who think the Dems are looking out for their interests - or at least VOTE as if that's the case - are sadly mistaken.
1- the "pledge issue." It went Nuclear-Hot so fast it was unbelievable, and while the Left is moving fast to defuse it, it has done a lot of damage.
2- the "wildfires issue." Every living thing fears wildfire, and it perfectly illustrates years of muddle-headed mismanagement. It also reveals the fanatical agenda behind the smiley-face of the ecology movement.
3- the "waste, fraud, and abuse issue." The Left is desperately trying to draw attention away by using the "WorldCom" and other corporate abuses and fraud, but the Government is the real heavy hitter in this department. They can't even account for their own ( our! ) money!
Teh only remaining question is will we have the fortitude, the intelligence and the will to take the battle to them?
The onus is on us, IMO.
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