Sandra Day O'Conner on "judicial activism"

[Upchurch]

(I'll appologize in advance. Apparently I'm in the mood for starting potentially flame worthy threads today. That is not my intent, but I can see how it could easily get there. Sorry.)

On Point, Hanging in the Balance

Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Conner's comments on the current state of the balance of powers.

 

[corplinx]

I think most of us are of the very cynical opinion that judicial activism is when you get ruled against and don't like it. Most flames will be thwarted though since many of us are safely firewalled at work from video feeds. Care to recap O'Connors thoughts?

 

[Upchurch]

I think most of us are of the very cynical opinion that judicial activism is when you get ruled against and don't like it. Most flames will be thwarted though since many of us are safely firewalled at work from video feeds. Care to recap O'Connors thoughts?

It's lengthy. I only caught a bit of it when it was on the air. and I'm only about a third of the way through the streaming version (while also working, so I missed something).

Basically, according to the report, she said in rather strong terms that the judiciary must remain independant from political pressure leveled at it by congress and the legislature. The current trend of attempting to undermind the judiciary could very easily lead to something akin to a dictatorship down the road and we (from the site), "Avoid these ends by avoiding these beginnings."

 

[Upchurch]

To be fair, they don't have a recording of this speech and I can find no other reference to this speech online. I have no evidence that this hasn't been made up out of whole cloth.



eta: ugh. spoke too soon.

 

[TragicMonkey]

This site claims to have the audio. Thanks to my computer issues, I can't listen. The article incorporates some quotes, but since the site seems highly slanted I'm inclined to skip the author's analysis. I couldn't find a written transcript; the first couple of pages of google results all cite this link.

http://rawstory.com/news/2006/Retired_Supreme_Court_Justice_hits_attacks_0310.html

 

[TragicMonkey]

To be fair, they don't have a recording of this speech and I can find no other reference to this speech online. I have no evidence that this hasn't been made up out of whole cloth.



eta: ugh. spoke too soon.

Here's a story about the lack of press for this story.

http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Content?oid=31218

I don't know how much I'd agree with the author. I only read The Stranger for Dan Savage, anyway.

 

[Mephisto]

Thanks for the link, Upchurch. I've been looking for this quote by DeLay.

After Rep. DeLay lost the Schiavo fight, for example, he denounced the "arrogant, out-of-control, unaccountable judiciary" and said that "the time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior." Sen. Cornyn, meanwhile, seemed to suggest a little later last year that violent attacks on judges, like the murder of the family of a federal trial judge in Chicago, were the logical result of frustration by people angry with so-called "unaccountable" judges.

And thank you, TragicMonkey for your link. I loved this:

"At this point, I decided to conduct a personal experiment in news manipulation. I e-mailed Alan Rusbridger, editor of the Guardian in London, attaching a link to the RawStory.com transcript, and suggested that he might like to put his highly experienced Washington correspondent, Julian Borger, on the trail of the fast-disappearing story."

Really interesting how news is manipulated and the shameful attitude American "journalists" hold toward newsmen elsewhere. Thanks.