http://www.startribune.com/stories/561/5331831.htmlLast update: April 6, 2005 at 7:08 AM
Editorial: Assault on courts/'Out of control' is misdirected
April 6, 2005 ED0406
The Terri Schiavo case is morphing into a case against the federal judiciary, a frightening proposition that makes the Republican Party seem a wholly owned subsidiary of right-wing religious radicalism.
From conservative members of Congress and right-wing Christian activists has come a string of angry condemnations for the federal courts. They've been accused of murdering Schiavo or ordering her "cold-blooded" execution. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, who threatened retribution against the courts over Schiavo, has now asked the House Judiciary Committee to review the entire case and "look at an arrogant, out-of-control judiciary that thumbed their nose at Congress and the president."
So just who are these "out-of-control" judges? The group would appear to include the entire U.S. Supreme Court, including conservative icons Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and William Rehnquist. None wanted to get involved with Schiavo. It would also include the entire bench of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Judge Stanley Birch of the 11th Circuit may be the poster boy of activist jurists. He's the judge who penned a scathing rebuke to Congress and the administration when his court issued its final rejection of the "Save Terri Schiavo Act." It was, he said, patently unconstitutional.......