Free Republic

Hatch fires back at his conservative critics By Alexander Bolton Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, is firing back at conservative critics on and off the Hill who have lambasted him for not moving more judicial nominees out of his committee. The rift stems from Hatch’s handling of a Senate sergeant at arms investigation into the unauthorized access of close to 5,000 internal Democratic Judiciary Committee documents from committee computers. Hatch approved the investigation, which resulted in the resignation of Manuel Miranda, who organized the GOP strategy on judges when he served as an aide...

<p>Proponents of the Federal Marriage Amendment are right: This is a political fight that is worth having. But they are wrong in thinking an amendment to the U.S. Constitution defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman will save the institution from the depredations of the postmodern deconstructionists.</p>

<p>One of the greatest contemporary threats to the survival of republican government arises from the courts. Increasingly, judges are behaving like black-robed autocrats, not simply ruling upon the law, but making law.</p> <p>In California, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals found the Pledge of Allegiance unconstitutional because it refers to "One Nation, Under God," allegedly violating the First Amendment's "establishment clause."</p>