KPBS San Diego ran a story about a previously unreported story that shows a concentrated effort in San Diego by fundamentalists to take over the judiciary by running hand picked judges in the election.
Organized under the political group "Better Courts Now" they have launched a slick website
http://www.bettercourtsnow.com/about/ and are running an grassroots campaign in the evangelical churches to try and take over the local judiciary with 4 candidates who are committed to their political positions.
This is a radical departure in judicial politics where candidates for judges list experience and broad philosophical interests but do not take specific political positions as that would indicate a predisposed judgement on arguments that may be made before them if they are elected as a judge.
If this campaign is successful in San Diego you should expect other areas to follow. You would then have a nightmare situation where judges are running on policy positions that they will enforce in cases where they have not yet heard the legally admissable evidence. Such actions would create a nightmare of challenges and appeals.
The key issues that the judges are running on are discribed by the clearly underqualified candidates below can be discerned from their website blog, here is a list of some of their entries:
Defense for Prop 8 Unshaken
San Diego Judge Allows Abortionist to Keep Medical License
Set your tube dials to "Gay marriage ban trial"
Fla School District faces lawsuit over prayer ban
High Court urged to protect faith groups' right to define membership
Judge rules against religious expression
The four candidates have been endorsed by the Republican Party in San Diego
http://www.sandiegorepublicans.org/userfiles/File/OfficialRepublicanVoterGuide-June2010.pdfcementing the right's attempt to undermine an independent judiciary with partisan politics.
People for the American Way had previously posted on this group warning that San Diego was a test case for the religious right to try and take over the judiciary
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/category/groups/better-courts-nowSeveral Religious Right activists and California state legislators have unveiled a new effort to take control of the court system "across San Diego County and eventually America" via elections through a new organization called "Better Courts Now", arguing that Proposition 8 would not have even been necessary if the state had the proper judges:
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