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."

[Republican Wildcat]

Her remarks are not something I associate myself with, although this article is exaggerating just a bit as to how dramatic they were.

[Sonny M]

Does no one here find it disturbing that a former associate justice is basically saying a branch of the government and government appointed employees should be immune from critizm for actions that they take as government employees that affect other people?

She is concerned about dictatorship?

She collected a salary from taxpayers and was a government employee and she wants us to restrict our use of the 1st amendment.

scary.

[Prophet in the wilderness]

Or HOW DARE we question or deny ( as in ? voting them out, or not voting for them in the first place ) the liberals their " BIRTH RIGHT " to rule and rein. Sarcasm

[right right]

Putting ANYONE on is a risk........ a woman matters not ........ just get the right woman...... Ohno Conner was not the right one

[BenLurkin]

Bump

[Prophet in the wilderness]

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

[Siena Dreaming]

She's a real pill.

Here's one for the Reagan-bots (and I'm one who thinks Reagan was indeed a great man) - Bush isn't the only great President to make a few mistakes.

[Paul C. Jesup]

Please Ms. O'Connor, continue talking. The more people that hear your messages, the more they will realize how much a leftist nutjob you really are and how bad a mistake it was to put you on the bench in the first place.

[pollyannaish]

Wow. This is shocking.

How credible is the source's take on what she said?

[Prophet in the wilderness]

I think that was David Suter or Kennedy.

[bayouranger]

Mr DeLay said: "The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behaviour."

Yes, Mr.DeLay, there will be a time.

[edcoil]

Side affects of all the drugs we have given to old people.

[vaudine]

When does the UFO leave for an alternate universe? I want to send Sandy a ticket. I am sick of her attempts to build one here--or failing that, make us into little Euros. TGSisG.

vaudine

[MNJohnnie]

Forgive us oh Might holders of Law degrees. How DARE we presume to want to rule ourselves. OBVIOUSLY our Founders created the Constitution as a living document so you mighty intellectual giants might rule us poor simple Helots! How dare us presume to think they actually serious when they said "Government OF the People, BY the People, FOR the people." OBVIOUSLY people only means those holders like YOU of the secret Law Guild knowledge, not us dirty peasants.

[mississippi red-neck]

The only dictators I have seen in power in the U.S. so far in my 60 years all wore black robes and thought themselves to be the Supreme Law of the Land instead of God and the Constitution.

[msnimje]

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

Yes, as well as her puppy, Tony Kennedy. But only when it suited the outcome they wanted.

[freepatriot32]

Libertarian ping.To be added or removed from my ping list freepmail me or post a message here

[trubluolyguy]

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.

---

Sweetheart, who asked you?

It's called freedom of speech, you may have heard of it during your years on the bench.

[muawiyah]

It defies imagination that someone who was an appointed judge with an indefinite term would think she has a position of moral superiority to folks engaged in the practice of democratic government.

The only tyranny needing to be combated and rejected in the United States is that of the judiciary.

[Prophet in the wilderness]

Your right, it doesn't matter if she was a woman or not, but, the bad choice was to put her there because she WAS " a woman " to conform to the liberals/feminist wishes.