Delgaudio: Weasel Jurists Must be Stopped
Washington, DC--Public Advocate President Eugene Delgaudio made the following statement today regarding the judicial compromise reached this week in the U.S. Senate.
"Public Advocate is concerned and skeptical about the deal reached by the seven moderate democrats and seven liberal Republicans in the U.S. Senate this week. The compromise on judicial nominees stops, at least temporarily, the "constitutional option" proposed by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist that would ensure that all judicial nominees receive an up or down vote on the Senate floor.
"Our biggest fear is that the Bush administration will see this deal as a sign that they need to appoint more liberal judges to the federal courts, specifically the U.S. Supreme Court" This is a trap that Republican Presidents have long fell into and is why the current Court is so predominantly liberal, despite the fact that seven of the nine judges currently serving on the Supreme Court were appointed by Republicans!
"Republican administrations have chosen liberals like Anthony Kennedy, David Souter, Sandra Day O'Connor, and even John Paul Stevens. These judges have a liberal activist record that rivals and often even surpasses that of the two judges appointed by Bill Clinton, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer.
"It is imperative that President Bush stand his ground and appoint jurist who are originalists and who desire to interpret the Constitution and law, not legislate from the bench. He must not allow himself to be bulled by these extreamists in the Senate who continue to attempt to force judges on the courts that have legislative agendas.
"Likewise the seven liberal Republicans must feel the pressure from pro-family Americans to hold their seven Democratic colleagues to account. Under no circumstances should judges similar to Antonin Scalia or Clarence Thomas be allowed to be viewed as "extraordinary" under the terms of the agreement, which would allow for their filibuster. Such an action should be viewed as a breach of the agreement. If the President and the Senate do not finally stand firm for originalists jurist, we are doomed to repeat the past, and will see a weasel court even worse than the one we have now."