They say that perspective is everything, but Ray Ring
gets it mostly wrong in his article on Bush judicial appointments
(HCN, 2/16/04: Courting disaster). To say that a “coup” is under
way is to ignore history. George Bush is fighting a coup that has
been ongoing for decades.
For too long, federal judges
have acted like black-robed potentates who look down their noses at
the feeble minds of the legislature. They look upon court cases as
a way to legislate from the bench, producing laws that don’t
exist otherwise.
Federal judges are the ones who have
usurped legislative power in a coup — and I applaud judges
who see their role as interpreting law and the constitution, not
making law they think is better than what the vote of the people
have produced.
The judges you so admire are fundamentally
undemocratic — they don’t care for the choices that
elected officials make and have decided to impose their own
instead. Your author doesn’t really decry ideological judges,
he just doesn’t like the other side’s judges, and he
longs for his own ideologues.
Our democracy works best
when judges forsake legislative power and leave that to the
people’s representatives. The task is to convince the people
of the wisdom of strong environmental laws — not depend on a
judicial coup to overthrow the vote of the people. While I share
your author’s love of the environment and the wisdom of
strong environmental laws, I love democracy more. We must win at
the polls, not at the bar.
Barry
Crook
Austin, Texas
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Black-robed potentates.
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