Judge Jones’ second act

June 10, 2006

Guest Post by Morbo

First, U.S. District [tag]Judge[/tag] [tag]John E. Jones III[/tag] crushed “[tag]intelligent design[/tag]” in Dover, Pa., in one of the best-reasoned and best-written legal opinions of 2005.

That was good enough. But Jones hasn’t simply walked away from the case. Since the ruling, Jones has been appalled by kook right activists who are trying to strip federal judges of their power to hear certain types of cases – or, worse yet, the nuts who threaten judges. Rather than simply sit and fume, he’s doing something about it. Jones has been quietly making speeches around Pennsylvania, educating people about the importance of judicial independence.

As the Philadelphia Inquirer reported:

U.S. District Judge John E. Jones III could have taken the safe route and retreated to the privacy of the courthouse after issuing his landmark ruling in December against intelligent design. Most judges are loath to go public about their cases at all, let alone respond to their critics.

But Jones — angered by accusations that he had betrayed the conservative cause with his ruling, and disturbed by the growing number of politically motivated attacks on judges in general — came out from his chambers swinging. “I didn’t check my First Amendment rights at the door when I became a judge,” Jones said in a recent interview.

The story notes that Jones, who was appointed to the bench by President George W. Bush, has been flooded with more speaking requests than he can honor. He is giving his message where it needs to be heard the most, addressing mostly high schools and colleges in Pennsylvania. In February, he ventured out of the state to speak to a national gathering of the Anti-Defamation League in Florida.

“I’ve found a message that resonates,” Jones said. “It’s a bit of a civics lesson, but it’s a point that needs to be made: that judges don’t act according to bias or political agenda.”

Lord knows we need that civics lesson. Apparently, a lot of Americans weren’t paying attention in ninth grade and missed the unit on the three branches of government and the separation of powers.

I hope Jones keeps giving that speech. I especially like the part about judges not acting on the bases of personal or political biases. I wish he would consider going on the road one more time and come down to the nation’s capital. There are some Supreme Court justices who need to hear his presentation.

Just as TV “news”, “sports”, even “weather” has morphed into Entertainment, I had thought our Judicial System was morphing into nothing more than politics in other arenas.

Routine politics, in this country, can look a lot like tweedle-dum fighting tweedle-dee, campus politics where it really doesn’t matter who enjoys electoral victory as long as the essentials get done by someone. That’s when we play by the rules. Recently the GOP has been on a furious tear to shut the game down, to take over everything and brook no opposition, even from within. And the elected Dems, fat and happy sucking on what the GOP allows them, have forgotten the role of Opposition Party in our national passtime.

The fact that the political conflict has shut down doesn’t mean that all conflicts have gone away or that all the problems are being addressed. You just don’t hear about those who are dissatisfied. The last years of the Hoover administration were like that. The early stages of the post WWII “Red Scare” were like that. The early days of the anti-Vietnam War movement were like that. The current era is like that. Much dissatisfaction, on a number of fronts (the war, economy, environment, health) but nowhere to turn.

As conflicts build it’s nice to believe the aggrieved can turn to the Judicial System for a non-bloody redress of grievances. But when the courts become little more than an extension of politics as usual, that avenue is closed. The only hope (and I hear this being expressed more often these days) is that a charismatic leader, like FDR, will arise and radically redirect the political system. That a JFK will “get the country moving again”. But recently even those who appear likely to become such leaders – charmers like Bill Clinton and, when he first came on the scene, the Shrub – in the end become part of the system.

Clearly, short of civil war or calling a Constitutional Convention, the courts are the way to go – if only more judges were like Jones. The fact that you can point to Jones as an noteworthy exception speaks volumes about where we’re drifting.

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