The organizers of Justice Sunday, a political rally disguised as a church event, have a message for the country: The religiously devout are being barred from serving in the federal judiciary.We expect that will come as a surprise — and an insult — to the more than 200 judges nominated and confirmed to the federal bench by President Bush since 2001.
This weekend’s Justice Sunday will be hosted in Kentucky and broadcast to churches across the United States. It’s part of a larger campaign to stop the Democratic-led Senate filibuster of a handful of judicial nominees, which is why Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., is taking part.
To hear Family Research Council chief Tony Perkins tell it the current filibuster is part of a purge against “people of faith.”
And what of the more than 200 Bush nominees confirmed by the Senate? Are they “mediocre judges,” as a Justice Sunday press release suggests?
Are Perkins and other Justice Sunday organizers James Dobson of Focus on the Family, Al Mohler of the Southern Baptist Convention and Chuck Colson of Prison Fellowship Ministries calling those judges heathens? Or suggesting that they aren’t the right kind of religious?
This characterization hardly seems fair or accurate.
We looked up the president’s nominees that have been confirmed to federal courts in Alabama and were impressed. Scott Coogler, David Proctor, Virginia Hopkins and William Steele all possess sparkling resumes full of high achievement in law. While their official bios don’t mention religious affiliation, we’d find it hard to believe any of these judges are hostile to the practice of worship.
We’re sure this applies to the rest of the Bush nominees currently sitting in federal courts across the country. After all, George W. Bush, a man who has listed Jesus Christ as his favorite philosopher, was the person who nominated them.
What Dobson, Perkins, etc. are implying is a slap in the face of non-filibustered Bush nominees as well as others put on the bench by former presidents.
Beyond insulting sitting judges, this crew appears to have a strong dislike for the Constitution. Why else would they treat its dictates with such disdain?
Here’s how it works:
Under the Constitution, presidents appoint judges and senators confirm judges. Rules and procedures of the Senate are left to its duly elected members. One such rule, the filibuster, has long served to give voice to minority views. The Senate has the option of — unwisely in our view — taking away the right to filibuster, but it’s wrong to suggest, as Justice Sunday’s organizers are, that filibustering judges in unconstitutional. The Constitution leaves it to the Senate to make its rules and under the current rules, the filibuster is allowed. This is the strict interpretation of the Constitution that many on the right allegedly esteem.
The founders, a group the religious right tells us were the right kind of religious, set up an independent judiciary that would not be subject to the whims of political pressure. Judges were not to make rulings to pacify the likes of James Dobson. There were to be no religious tests for service. The ideal was for a judge to be of sound reason, wise bearing and steady demeanor. Appointing one was to be done with wise consideration. Likewise, removing one was not to be done lightly.
Yet, those who will participate in Sunday’s rally appear to want just the opposite. They seek judges of a narrow ideological bent who will follow a radical agenda even if it gets crossways with the Constitution. There’s no justice in that.
Perhaps the religious right should be reminded of the words of Martin Luther, father of the Protestant Reformation, “I’d rather be ruled by a competent Turk than an incompetent Christian.”
