Posted on 06/02/2007 8:58:54 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Recent attacks on "activist judges" by legislative bodies could be putting the concept of an independent judiciary at risk, retired Associate Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor said Friday. "These are appalling times," O'Connor told a crowd of 700 during a moderated discussion about her career at the University of Tulsa. "There is so much rancor and dislike going on." O'Connor asked the crowd if it heard of the attacks on so-called "godless, secular humanist, activist judges," and cited cases in several states where people attempted to introduce ballot measures that would toss judges in jail for making the wrong decisions or shorten their terms on the bench... She said an independent judiciary enables judges to resolve cases fairly, "and let the chips fall where they may," even if the legislative branch isn't happy with the outcome... O'Connor also discussed her recent role as a member of the Iraq Study Group, a bipartisan commission that met to assess the current and prospective situation in Iraq and the surrounding region. The report called for a gradual troop pullout and more aggressive regional diplomacy.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsok.com ...
Remember, Howard Phillips and Jerry Falwell warned Reagan about O’Connor, and he wouldn’t listen.
Actually it is unethical to fail to reveal how you might rule on a case beforehand. If you lean one way or the other, I think it would be important for the litigants to know. What you are sanctioning is that a judge can prejudge a case as long as he doesn't reveal his prejudices beforehand.
In my particular practice we all know all the prejudices of all the various judges and we take that into account when we make a decision as to whether or not to settle or take a case to trial. I don't think that litigants should be left in the dark as to what leanings a judge may have beforehand. They all have them. I think they should reveal them.
Thanks everybody for the response. BTTT.
Straight out of the Communist Party playbooks. One World Communism.
"Socialism cannot exist unless it is global"
Well, Ms. O’Connor as Fred recently said - if judges are going to act like elected representatives, making laws instead of interpreting the Constitution etc., don’t be surprised if the voters start treating them like elected representatives. (paraphrasing)
LOL...well, you completely bumfuzzled me!
Frankly, judges acting like supreme legislators of social policy and trashing the Constitution’s checks and balances is appalling.
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