Former Top Judge Says US Risks Edging Near To Dictatorship

The Guardian (UK) ^ | 3-13-2006 | Julian Borger

[blam]

Former top judge says US risks edging near to dictatorship

· Sandra Day O'Connor warns of rightwing attacks
· Lawyers 'must speak up' to protect judiciary

Julian Borger in Washington
Monday March 13, 2006
The Guardian (UK)

Sandra Day O'Connor, a Republican-appointed judge who retired last month after 24 years on the supreme court, has said the US is in danger of edging towards dictatorship if the party's rightwingers continue to attack the judiciary.

In a strongly worded speech at Georgetown University, reported by National Public Radio and the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin, Ms O'Connor took aim at Republican leaders whose repeated denunciations of the courts for alleged liberal bias could, she said, be contributing to a climate of violence against judges.

Ms O'Connor, nominated by Ronald Reagan as the first woman supreme court justice, declared: "We must be ever-vigilant against those who would strong-arm the judiciary."

She pointed to autocracies in the developing world and former Communist countries as lessons on where interference with the judiciary might lead. "It takes a lot of degeneration before a country falls into dictatorship, but we should avoid these ends by avoiding these beginnings."

In her address to an audience of corporate lawyers on Thursday, Ms O'Connor singled out a warning to the judiciary issued last year by Tom DeLay, the former Republican leader in the House of Representatives, over a court ruling in a controversial "right to die" case.

After the decision last March that ordered a brain-dead woman in Florida, Terri Schiavo, removed from life support, Mr DeLay said: "The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behaviour."

[msnimje]

Sandy spent the last 24 years pissing on the Constitution, negating the power of Congress and the States and now she wants to warn us about unbridled power in the Executive Branch?

[Cicero]

Thank God this woman decided to leave the court.

[Tanniker Smith]

She wasn't "Top Judge". SHe was "Associate Top Judge".

[MNJohnnie]

Thank you God for the act of grace that made THIS lunatic step down from the US Supreme Court! Seems she has spent WAY too much time on the DC Party circuit.

[right right]

she's a bigger idiot than I thought.......... glad shes gone before she helped destroy the whole enchalada

[Ursus arctos horribilis]

So much for the old bats centrist and moderate label, she was/is a flaming commie.

[MamaB]

Me,too.

[MNJohnnie]

Of course. Don't you know in THEIR warped little world unbridled power should rest solely in the hands of Unelected Judges. HOW dare anyone think to impinge on their unchecked powers!

[PGalt]

Having paranoid, delusional, irrational thinkers sitting on The United States Supreme Court is scarier.

[MNJohnnie]

Hi Mama. I hope you are well! Good to see you

[fieldmarshaldj]

Apparently she failed to see a half-century+ of leftist judicial activist dictatorship.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

But...but...she's a "moderate!" An enlightened moderate, centrist, middle-of-the-road wise woman!

[EagleUSA]

Thank God this woman decided to leave the court.
-----
Yes, she was as big a problem for Constitutional America as are the other socialist/activists. Like other liberal activists on the judiciary, "attacking the judiciary", is expecting the judiciary to OBEY THE LAW, uphold and protect the Constitution, and not legislate and conduct personal political agendas from the bench.

[bondjamesbond]

Dear Sandra,

STFU. We don't have to listen to you anymore.

Love, Bondjamesbond.

[EagleUSA]

Thank God this woman decided to leave the court.
-----
Yes, she was as big a problem for Constitutional America as are the other socialist/activists. Like other liberal activists on the judiciary, "attacking the judiciary", is expecting the judiciary to OBEY THE LAW, uphold and protect the Constitution, and not legislate and conduct personal political agendas from the bench.

[Prophet in the wilderness]

Looks like she comes from the same cloth as Jimma Carter comes from.
Reagan was a great President, but, this is one mistake and regret he must have thought over and over.
I just the choice to put the first woman on the bench was pressure from the women's groups.

[OKIEDOC]

Isn't she the lame brained judge that wanted to bring international law into our courts.

[Carolinamom]

I thought she resigned to take care of her ailing husband.

[airborne]

Oh, it's just Sandy.(yawn)