"Activist Judges"

Remember that term? "Activist Judges"? That's the term Republicans threw around loosely in reference to judges that might uphold pro gay marriage laws in states like Massachussetts. Funny how they're pretty much staying away from that term now. Ever since they got Sam Alito (left) and John Roberts (right) onto the Supreme Court the entire judicial system seems to be swayed to their side.

From the Supreme Court on down to lower court judges (we'll get to that in a minute) the Bush Administration has used their power to position themselves to never lose regardless of what laws are broken.

What's worse is they're reshaping our key laws in record time.

Here's a quick scorecard.

-Ruled AGAINST racial integration at schools, thus basically overturning one of the most important cases in our country's history, Brown v. Board of Education.

-Ruled AGAINST freedom of speech, when they determined a kid having a sign that said "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" was not a freedom of speech issue and ruled in favor of a school punishing him.

-Ruled AGAINST separation of church and state and the establishment clause by ruling that taxpayers could not challenge Bush's faith based initiatives programs.

-Ruled AGAINST Women's Rights by being the first Supreme Court to uphold an abortion ban that allows no exceptions for the health of the woman.

-Ruled AGAINST gender equality in the workplace by restricting the rights of women to sue their employers for gender discrimination.

-Ruled FOR special interests running attack ads against candidates even beyond current government bans

If they're scoring at home that's Right Wing nutcases 6, America and the Constitution 0.

Now it's not just the Republican tilted Supreme Court that is leading the upheaval of rule of law. Obviously we all know what's happening the Justice Department, but it's the lower courts that are packed with Bush Appointees as well and are using their newfound power to assail our basic principles of constitutional establishment.

For example, the ACLU had won a considerable case striking a serious blow against Bush's illegal wiretapping program. It has been deemed illegal by just about every constitutionl scholar alive and is clearly so by the mere fact that Bush purposely sidestepped the FISA courts to do the wiretaps.

Well the Bushies appealed and once at an appellate level they had a 2-1 Republican appointee advantage at, the ACLU and previous ruling were struck down. Score another one against rule of law.

Then there's that wonderful Judge John D. Bates.

He got two high profile cases in the case of five years which his pals in the White House who appointed him got their money's worth.

First he was the judge that ruled that the Comptroller of the GAO had no right to sue for the records of Cheney's super secret Energy Task Force meetings. Of course now we know more about the meetings and how each oil company got individualized meetings while conservation groups were lumped together in short group meetings. It was obvious who the attention was going to. Transcripts of what was actually said at these meetings though still is not available and probably for good reason. As we've seen through pretty much every policy during this Administration's two terms, the oil companies are priority one.

Then today he saved them again. He ruled that Valerie Plame, the covert CIA agent who was actually working in the nuclear counter proliferation unit trying to figure out what Iran has, could not sue Vice President Cheney, Scooter Libby and all the cretins in the White House who were involved in leaking her name to the press and ruining her career.

Chalk another one up for the bad guys.

Bates owes his current position to the Bush Administration who appointed him in 2001. Oh, and we get to look forward to this lack of wisdom on the FISA courts now as Republican Chief Justice John Roberts appointed him to that court (in addition to his current duties) in 2006.

But hey the kicker is probably why the guy got the promotion in the first place.

According to his bio:

Judge Bates was on detail as Deputy Independent Counsel for the Whitewater investigation from 1995 to mid-1997.

So there you have it. He was one of the hacks who hunted down Bill Clinton's sex life in the right wing's attempt to impeach him.

Sadly enough, in Republican bizarro world it all comes back to Clinton.

-Rp