A Judiciary Under Seige

From an advertising campaign against "the anti-God Left" to criticism from Republican leadership (elected and non-elected), the US judicial system is under seige, one unlike anytime since FDR, according to some scholars. Media response has been, in the main, supportive of our Constitutional separation of powers (legislative, executive, judicial), although some media have joined the chorus of accusation.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer referenced this week's Judeo-Christian Council for Constitutional Restoration, which made calls to impeach Reagan-appointee Justice Anthony Kennedy, when it wrote: "Judicial independence is important at all times. It is even more vital when passions are inflamed."

Ft Wayne News Sentinel columnist Linda Campbell wrote that it is "....dishonest and a disservice to public understanding to blithely distort what the court has done.... Quarrel if you will with the majority's reading of the Constitution - but don't mischaracterize it as pandering to frowning foreigners." She was referencing a majority decision, authored by Kennedy, which has resulted in calls for his impeachment.

The Campbell piece is a response to a ruling prohibiting execution (death penalty) for minors. The Washington Times quotes the National Review in criticizing this decision. The Delaware County Times writes:

If Justice Kennedy and his brethren want to play at what sounds like mullah multiculturalism let them quit the court and join a law school faculty where such injudicious behavior might be less conspicuous.

Nevertheless, the Delaware County Times opposes what it calls a Republican "War on Judges," writing

The fact that some conservative judges, appointed by conservative presidents, are decrying the thuggery of the majority is a sign of the system’s strength, not its weakness. The rulers of this mob would have to fundamentally rewrite the Constitution to silence those voices of dissent. And that couldn’t happen, could it?

Some editorials note that Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt tried, unsuccessfully, to change the US Supreme Court when he was unhappy with its response to parts of the New Deal.

And the Idaho Mountain Express reminds readers of McCarthism, noting that the Wall Street Journal described Rep. Tom DeLay (R-TX), who has led the elected leader attack on the judiciary, "as having 'odor ... an unsavory whiff.'" It also wrote:

Every American generation needs to be shaken out of a collective complacency that encourages mischief by demagogues who would seize government under the guise of true American values.

The Paradise Post joins this -- the most common -- refrain:

Regardless of one's thinking about the correctness or incorrectness of the courts' rulings in the Schiavo - or any other - case, we are a nation of laws and demeaning judges' integrity is counterproductive... It's time for everyone to step back, tone down the rhetoric and let emotions cool. Our Constitution is a wonderful document that has guided us through worse storms and will again if we don't interfere. The checks and balances inherent in the Constitution were put there by our Founding Fathers for a purpose - let them fulfill their mission.