Posted on 03/06/2009 9:15:49 AM PST by EternalVigilance
In a move that should give social conservatives great pause, Governor Sarah Palin has appointed a former board member of Planned Parenthood to the Alaska State Supreme Court.
Palin appointed Anchorage Superior Court Judge Morgan Christen to the state’s highest court on Wednesday. Along with Christen’s former board member status with Planned Parenthood.
There is no disputing Palin’s appointment of Christen will cause the Alaska Supreme to lean left and will ensure a more activist court when it comes to gay marriage, and abortion. The Christen appointment is key because she replaces justice Warren Mathews, one of the dissenting votes striking down the parental consent legislation.
The Governor, who early on won the support of Alaska liberals after she pushed through an enormous, unprecedented tax increase on the oil industry, seems to be back in their good graces with this appointment.
ADN liberal bloggers responded to Palin’s Supreme Court appointment writing,
“Ohmigawd!??The governor's been taken over by space aliens.??What an improvement!”
“Wow. Way to go Palin! I can't believe I just said that. But hey, credit where credit is due.”
“Glad to see a woman in the position to balance out the court. Good for Palin for keeping bible thumper beliefs out of the court system and honoring the separation of Church and State.”
“This is the one good action that Sarah Palin has taken over the past three years. And I have no problem admitting it. Great pick!!!! So even if the wing-nut parental consent bill passes, the state Supremes now have enough votes to overturn it as unconstitutional.”
Granted Palin would have had to put up a fight to block the appointment of the far left Christen to the court. Under Alaska law the judicial council made up mostly of liberal lawyers gets to filter out candidates who do not hold a leftist background. The governor must pick from the names forwarded.
But former governor Frank Murkowski during his term fought the process and at first refused to name any of the names submitted to him. The liberal media beat him up pretty bad over it and he eventually caved.
If Governor Palin would have taken on this fight, it probably would have ended up in court. If she had taken up the fight and asked for all the candidates’ names that applied to be forwarded, it would have brought to the public’s attention that trial lawyers control the third branch of government in Alaska. But with the governor refusing to spend any political capital on this issue, it is sure to disappear from Alaska’s political landscape.
The governor caving into trial lawyers also guarantees an activist court will continue to push its agenda on the people of Alaska. It will continue to stand between you and your child, continue to redefine marriage and block development.
Palin appointing Christen kills any move by the legislature to pass parental consent legislation. The new court with Christen on it will surely strike down any new laws. This is one of the reason Palin’s caving is confusing. Just recently held a news conference standing side by side with conservative lawmakers sponsoring new parental consent legislation.
Refusing to fight for parental consent laws is risky for Palin. It clearly will help her avoid controversy from the liberal media. But conservatives supporting her won't like the fact she appointed a former Planned Parenthood board member to Alaska’s highest court.
Many of the governor’s conservative supporters have ignored her high taxes and liberal anti free market policies. They support her simply because she says she is pro-life and is open about her faith. But the Christen appointment proves that while the governor lives the pro-life message in her personal life, she is not willing to spend political capital on the issue in her political life.
YIKES!!!
I don’t trust anything from this source actually on the topic of Sarah Palin.
Try this one:
http://www.adn.com/news/government/story/711378.html
The substance of this piece is accurate.
I hope it ain’t true....I DONT WANT any of our elected officials reaching across to a liberal.
Here we go again, as always, there is more to the piss poor reporting by the media than appears. See the threads here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2200375/posts
and here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2199866/posts
Surprised how many people see something in the MSM and take it at face value without the slightest thought it may be BS.
Welcome to the world of politics, where choosing from the lesser of two evils is part of the job description.
Also, it is always important to look under the story and it’s reporter. Often times you’ll uncover a few worms.
Ping, let’s see how many people ‘trust’ the MSM on this or have the intellectual curiosity to dig a little deeper.
Marvelous.
I’m with you. Trust who!?! The Press? The same paper that’s tried to destroy Sarah since the start?
Come now...
It’s also worth noting that people CAN change (they usually don’t, but they can).
IF this turns out to be true, then it is certainly a dumb movement on Sarah’s part — but I think I’ll see how it all shakes out when I hear from more reliable and principled sources.
Maybe we should trust the ‘pro-life Christian’ group that leveled this charge who is promoting the more liberal, pro-abortion Smith instead of Christen. Ask yourself that question and a whole new world of thoughts open as to the motivation behind this.
They take it at face value because they’re just looking for dirt to quote and say, “I told you so!”, in trying to “substantiate” their assumptions.
As a rule, I immediately suspect stories that come from the MSM.
“Under the state Constitution, Palin HAD TO select from among the nominees sent to her by the seven-member Alaska Judicial Council, made up of lawyers, public members appointed by governors and the Supreme Court chief justice, currently Dana Fabe.”
I’ll bet everyone here a donut that Mrs. Palin picked ‘The Lesser of Two Evils’ from the stack of leftist appointees that landed on her desk...
Thanks for these links.
I’ll read them and will probably realize that Palin remains pro-life.
But.... in 3 years - as she makes another move toward the WH - this will be used against her by libs who like to slant the news:
PALIN SUPPORTED PRO-CHOICE PLANNED PARENTHOOD JUSTICE
The word is “former”. If it weren’t for the “former” Nazi rocket scientist that came to work here after the war we would never have gotten to the moon as fast as we did.
ping
Right. This is an opinion piece from the Palin hating Fagan. It is filled with half-truths and spin designed to get conservatives angry with Palin. Let’s see how many take the bait.
Amazing how so many people on this site latch onto every negative word written or spoken against Republicans.
You must enjoy being led around by the nose.
They are all RINOs ~ they just don’t know it yet, but they will when we EXPEL them from the party and burn their membership cards in front of them.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.