Passing judgment on the judges
Edward Cone
News & Record
4-24-05
Here's something to think about on your way to church this morning: Your political opinions may define you as being "against people of faith."
Says who? Not some radical Islamist organization declaring war on infidels, but a group of conservative American Christians who claim that opposing the Republican leadership in the U.S. Senate amounts to opposing religious truth.
The group, which includes James Dobson of Focus on the Family, has scheduled a live telecast to participating churches and webcast for this evening. Called "Justice Sunday," it is meant to draw attention to what organizer Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council calls "out-of-control courts" that propagate "anti-Christian dogma." Perkins wants the Senate to change its rules to allow a vote on judicial nominees. The long-familiar filibuster, he says, is being used against religious people.
Fine, it's the First Amendment in action, these guys are free to say that a Senate vote is a test of faith. Less fine: when politicians endorse that message. Yet Bill Frist, Senate majority leader, is scheduled to appear on the program. The Tennessee Republican is said to be running for president. He wants the votes of religious conservatives and will do much to get them. Last month Frist, a physician, even contradicted Terri Schiavo's own doctors based on a video he saw of the unfortunate woman. Now he's willing to participate in an event that casts approval of President Bush's judicial nominees as a doctrinal issue.
This is a moment to consider just how far we are willing to trespass into the realm of political religion. We've grown used to having our values questioned by the philandering congressmen, wealthy preachers and loofah-loving cable hosts who long ago trampled the line between righteous and holier-than-thou, but this infidel stuff takes it to another level. Having Frist on board raises the stakes.
God is not a Republican or a Democrat. To claim that one party is an enemy of the faithful is not just insulting, it's incendiary, and the fires you start this way can be very difficult to put out. Part of America's brilliance has been its stoutly secular government, which has allowed religion to flourish. We mess with that at our own peril.
This dangerous game is part of a larger strategy to attack the judiciary, and the non-religious rhetoric from some prominent conservatives has been no less alarming than the enemies-of-the-faith stuff. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, usually unshamable, had to apologize for his threatening remarks about the judges in the Schiavo case. But DeLay wasn't done: Last week, he lambasted Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy by name. Meanwhile, Texas Sen. John Cornyn appeared to link recent violence against judges to political dissatisfaction with their decisions, despite all evidence to the contrary.
You'd never know it from all the talk about liberal judges, but the federal bench is already dominated by Republican appointees. So what lies behind this judicial jihad? To start with, Americans have argued about the role of courts since Marbury sued Madison. Ruling on polarized issues such as abortion and gay rights, as the courts must do, means somebody will almost always be mad at them. And the Senate confirmation process does seem a little broken. But there are other agendas at work, too. Courts are conservative entities by nature, upholding law and precedent, and there are powerful interests that don't like some of the things our courts uphold.
Consider the president's plan to essentially remake Social Security from a defined benefit plan into an investment vehicle. That example of undoing a program seen as foundational to many Americans didn't materialize in a vacuum. As conservative legal thinker Michael Greve said to The New York Times, "I think what is really needed here is a fundamental intellectual assault on the entire New Deal edifice. We want to withdraw judicial support for the entire modern welfare state."
Think about that the next time somebody starts ripping into "liberal activist judges" or tells you that God plays favorites in the Senate. This assault on the judiciary is not nearly that simple, and it's not over, either.
Edward Cone (www.edcone.com, efcone@mindspring.com) writes a column for the News & Record most Sundays.
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Last update: 4/24/2005; 2:10:16 PM .
