Phyllis Schafly was also there:
Schlafly called for passage of a quartet of bills in Congress that would remove courts' power to review religious displays, the Pledge of Allegiance, same-sex marriage and the Boy Scouts. Her speech brought a subtle change in the argument against the courts from emphasizing "activist" judges -- it was, after all, inaction by federal judges that doomed Schiavo -- to "supremacist" judges. "The Constitution is not what the Supreme Court says it is," Schlafly asserted.I hope the cooler minds among the Republicans in Congress see the need to distance themselves from these sorts of attacks.
UPDATE: The Moderate Guy collects a lot of reactions to that use of the Stalin quote.
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2 comments:
Cincinnatus: Get your facts straight. I voted for Russ Feingold.
Where is this majority? The Court consistently votes in ways that a majority of the country generally agrees with, including overturning a rarely used sodomy law and striking down execution of minors which only a handful of states actively support. [This does not mean the Court is necessarily right.] The courts were restrained in the Schiavo matter and the people supported it. One liberal state court supported gay marriage, another libertarian one allowing "civil unions." The whole cloth comment suggests a failure to read the opinions. The suggestion past courts were so much more restrained is an ignorance of history. (Warren anyone?)
As to int'l standards, again, if one actually reads the opinions, they were not the deciding factor. But, yeah, as with her misquoting Alexander Hamilton (the courts are the least dangerous branch, not "should be" the least dangerous), it makes good political sense to speak to their base and rile up anti-court feeling. You know, until they aren't in power any more or conservative constitutional values need to be upheld. After all, I reckon conservatives are not as upset when the courts struck down overreaching uses of congressional power and supported vouchers to religious schools, funding to college religious publications, and after school religious classes in elementary schools.
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