Posted on 02/02/2007 8:12:16 PM PST by Mr. Silverback
Judge John Jones once told the Philadelphia Inquirer that he became a judge hoping that someday he would have a chance to rule in matters of great importance.
Well, last year he got his chance. He ruled on Kitzmiller v. Dover, holding that you could not teach intelligent design in public schools. But given whats leaked out about his decision, Judge Jones is not likely to be remembered as an outstanding thinker, as Time magazine called him. Instead, we might remember him as the judge who let a litigant write his opinion.
Maybe I am an idealist, but going back to law school, I have always respected judges. I believe they take seriously their oath to uphold the laws and the Constitution and to rule impartially. Sad to say, this judge apparently did not.
Maybe I should not have been surprised because, two months before the case was heard, the judge said in a newspaper interview that he was going to go see Inherit the Wind, the old film about the Scopes trial, hopelessly biased toward the evolutionists view. He said he wanted to do it to get a context for hearing the Dover case. I wrote him and explained that it is historically inaccurate; he never replied.
Now it turns out that even as the media was praising Judge Jones for his brilliant insights, the Discovery Institute found that ACLU attorneys had actually written key sections of the ruling. In the section on intelligent design, more than 90 percent was taken virtually verbatim from the ACLUs proposed Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law, so says the Discovery Institute.
Thus, as the Discovery Institute notes, the central part of the ruling reflects no original, deliberative activity or independent examination of the record on the judges part.
And thats not all. The problem when you let somebody else write your decision is that they may make a mistake. And you, then, look silly.
For example, Jones misrepresented biochemist Michael Behe; he claimed that Behe said that articles purporting to explain the evolution of the immune system were not good enough. But what Behe actually said was: Its not that they arent good enough. Its simply that they are addressed to a different subject. This came right out of the ACLUs writings.
Jones also claimed that intelligent design is not supported by any peer-reviewed . . . publications. Again, wrong and, again, straight from the ACLUs brief.
This, it turns out, is not even the first time or maybe the worst of Judge Jones passing off other peoples words as his own. In a commencement address, he employed direct quotations from the book The Founding Fathers and the Place of Religion in America, according to World magazine, without providing citation or indication that he was quoting.
As World magazine noted, none of what Judge Jones did in the Dover decision amounts to a violation of judicial ethics. But other judges will hardly be impressed, which is a good thing since the press are saying this is a precedent for future cases.
The Old Testament warns judges: You shall not pervert justice; you shall not show partiality. Cutting and pasting from one sides brief does not say much for impartialitysomething for you to point out next time someone throws the Dover decision in your face.
Sad to see such twisted, depraved ignorance posted here. The time will come when you will wish that he had not allowed you to exist, but exist you will, eternally.
Or, how many court rulings are based on nothing but hollywood fantasy?
But apparently you got sucked in by his deliberate lies anyway.
And if Hollywood understands what influenced those rulings. . .
By whose lies?
At least while I am on earth I am not cowering in fear of the giant bully is the sky.
Please restate in standard English. I am sure you have something interesting to say. I would like to understand it.
Yes, it's the promise of what is to come of which I speak.
LOL
Actually I believe that they want to teach ID as THEORY. It is evolution (and man made global warming and genetic origins for homosexuality) that is taught as established fact.
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