Judge Not...The Bench Is in the Hot Seat...can you say Schiavo!.....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/16/AR2005051601392.html

Essay
Judge Not
In the Court of Public Opinion, the Bench Is in the Hot Seat

By Philip Kennicott
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, May 17, 2005; Page C01

King Solomon, hearing the case of Harlot v. Harlot , in which two women laid claim to the same baby, proposed cleaving the child in half. This, in turn, ferreted out the real mother, who gave up the baby rather than see it die. "And all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had rendered," says the Bible, "and they stood in awe of the king, because they perceived that the wisdom of God was in him, to render justice."

One might think this would be perceived as an outrageous bit of arrogance from the bench, yet Americans, in their literature, their myths and in rhetoric we still hear today in arguments about the judiciary, have an abiding affection for Solomon's style of justice -- justice that is simple, often deadly and delivered directly from God. So much so that the kind of justice that replaced Solomon's wise improvisation is under stinging attack.




Terry Schiavo and the filibuster rule in the news, along with the judiciary, in Florida (above) and Colorado. What would Judge Judy and Roy Brown say? (By Peter Muhly -- Reuters)


As the Senate considers changing the filibuster rule in judicial confirmations, a move that could radically change the makeup of the federal courts, the language of the debate rings with populism. The court system, say these critics, harbors arrogant and abusive judges who make up law and policy rather than decide cases based only on the Constitution and established precedent. The rhetoric borrows terms and ideas from America's ancient argument with aristocracy: Judges are arrogant, even tyrannical, a law unto themselves, indifferent to public opinion. But it also recalls a fantasy of frontier justice that may well date back to the theocratic justice of the Puritans, and ultimately to the warrior-judges of the Old Testament.

The religious broadcaster Pat Robertson has regularly referred to American judges as an "oligarchy." It is a rare example, from a voice on the right, of invoking something that might be seen as "class warfare." But he's not alone. A host of tropes, all derived from the idea that elite status leads to decay, dissolution, even impotence, have been thrown at judges recently. Anti-abortion activist Randall Terry, angry about Florida Circuit Court Judge George Greer's order to remove Terri Schiavo's feeding tube, suggested on MSNBC that corruption is endemic among judges: "Judge Greer is a corrupt judge. And that should not surprise anybody. People find out about corrupt judges all the time."

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edited to add link

H.R. 3799.
----------------------excerpt from bill:

"Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter, the Supreme Court shall not have jurisdiction to review, by appeal, writ of certiorari, or otherwise, any matter to the extent that relief is sought against an element of Federal, State, or local government, or against an officer of Federal, State, or local government (whether or not acting in official personal capacity), by reason of that element's or officer's acknowledgment of God as the sovereign source of law, liberty, or government."

;-)