Posted on 08/09/2005 6:17:00 PM PDT by wagglebee
Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer said Tuesday that rulings on difficult subjects like gay rights and the death penalty have left courts vulnerable to political attacks that are threatening judicial independence.
Breyer urged lawyers to help educate people about court responsibility to be an independent decision-maker.
"If you say seven or eight or nine members of the Supreme Court feel there's a problem ... you're right," he told the American Bar Association. "It's this edge on a lot of issues."
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who was speaking with Breyer, said: "The politics of judges is getting to be red hot." He said Supreme Court rulings on the Pledge of Allegiance and Ten Commandments have captured the public's interest and polarized Democrats and Republicans.
"There's nothing that's not on the table," former Solicitor General Theodore Olson said of the court's work, which this fall includes issues like abortion, capital punishment and assisted suicide.
Breyer said the nine-member court is focused on constitutional limits on major fights of the day. "We're sort of at the outer bounds. And we can't control politics of it, and I don't think you want us to try to control politics of it," he said.
Congressional leaders including House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, have criticized justices in recent months. DeLay was particularly critical of the court's refusal to stop Terri Schiavo's death and at a death penalty decision that cited international cases.
Breyer defended using overseas legal opinions as a guide only, adding, "It has hit a political nerve."
Breyer, Olson and Graham were discussing the future of courts on the final day of the ABA's annual meeting in Chicago.
Also Tuesday, the group was debating whether to endorse federal protection for journalists who refuse to reveal their sources to prosecutors. Passage of such a measure would authorize the organization to lobby Congress, where "shield law" proposals are pending.
Judicial independence has been a major theme at the meeting of the ABA, a 400,000-member group.
The group's policymaking board passed a resolution urging elected officials and others to support and defend judges. New group President Michael Greco of Boston said judges have faced physical threats, and threats of impeachment from Washington political leaders unhappy with court decisions.
"If we do not protect our courts, our courts cannot protect us," Greco said.
On another subject, Greco defended the ABA's role in checking the background of Supreme Court nominee John Roberts and other federal judicial nominees. The committee has spent the past two weeks reviewing Roberts' work on an appeals court and interviewing people who have worked with him.
"The ABA does not, and we will not, protect the interests of any political party or faction, nor the interests of any ideological or interest group," said Greco, who previously oversaw the judge review committee.
Breyer told the group that the retirement of Sandra Day O'Connor is a personal loss and loss for the nation.
Breyer: Attacks Threaten Court Independence
The same can be turned around and said about the court and our freedoms as judges look to the international mood of courts..
Court Threatens Independence
Someone ought to ask Breyer if he's ever heard of the three COMPETING branches of government. When one abuses its power, then it is subject to checks and balances. If he wants the courts to remain independent, then they should stop abusing their power.
You said it... it's the "checks and balances," stupid.
Methinks these Justices are getting mighty thin-skinned for a very select group of people that can change to course of millions of people's lives by the swipe of a pen in their hands...
Testy, testy---and I don't like it!
and I don't like the resolution that they passed --- not that I think that violence should befall any judge...but they should not "demand" that elected officials defend and protect them from their own bad judgements...
Too late. He has his mind made up.
Oh phooey.
Breyer is a traitorourous pervert and an
arrogant tyrant. just like Ginsburg, Souter,
& Kennedy.
These filthy betrayers are out to destruct
our society, and all moral basises, that are the
fabric of our civilisation and it's ability to
survive, with their perverted and assininely
idiotic 'death culture' rulings.
Yeah you just cant steal our country any longer without us knowing.
Talk about your monomania. Just like the media.
What a bunch of crap (See Kelo).
Were Breyer's lips moving?
If you can't stand the heat, . . . resign and let Bush appoint a replacement.
Their appointments are only for good behavior. Most are bullies rather than the self-annointed high priests our betters would have us believe.
Most become enemies of our Constitution when they place their opinions over our Law of OUR Land. Millions of us hold them in contempt.
Their own words are their petards.
Maybe the SCOTUS should be relocated to Brussels where they can issue their unconstitutional rulings with out worrying about being harassed by the people of the country they are destroying.
These people just have too darn much power. What are we going to do to get them to realize they work for us, and not the other way around?
The fact of the matter is that the Founding Fathers intentionally created the judiciary with less power than the executive or legislative branches. There is no provision in the Constitution for the courts to determine what is and isn't constitutional, the courts seized this power with Marbury v. Madison. Over the past two centuries, they have become more brazen with their power grabs, and with the exception of Andrew Jackson, nobody has ever stood up to them.
We recently had a situation during the Schiavo matter (and how any of us feel about that controversy is irrelevant here) where a judge openly ignored a Congressional subpoena, and Congress did nothing. In my opinion, there have been many instances where Congress and/or the President should have chosen to ignore a court ruling they felt was unlawful, yet they never do. Until the other branches of government decide to reassert their authority, the judiciary will continue it's tyranny.
If the Court would stick to interpreting law rather than making it there would be fewer attacks, rather than pretending to hold legislative powers.
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