{"id":12562,"date":"2007-08-16T12:50:55","date_gmt":"2007-08-16T16:50:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/12562.html"},"modified":"2007-08-16T12:50:55","modified_gmt":"2007-08-16T16:50:55","slug":"when-the-right-targets-judges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/when-the-right-targets-judges\/","title":{"rendered":"When the right targets judges"},"content":{"rendered":"

For far too long, the right has been using some over-the-top rhetoric when it comes to the federal judiciary. Even conservative lawmakers have pushed the envelope pretty hard. Tom DeLay, as you’ll recall, made some veiled threats<\/a> against judges after the Terri Schiavo controversy. Shortly thereafter, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said judges who are the victims of violence may bring the attacks onto themselves<\/a> with liberal rulings. Just as the rhetoric started to cool down again, DeLay returned to the subject, insisting that the federal courts had “run amok<\/a>” and needed to be reined in.<\/p>\n

It contributes to a political environment in which judges have to live in fear<\/a>. (via Ron Chusid<\/a>)<\/p>\n

More than two years after enraging right-wing groups by ordering Terry Schiavo’s feeding tube removed, George Greer still peers over his shoulder nervously at times.<\/p>\n

In fact, the Florida judge told a rapt audience Friday at the American Bar Association’s annual meeting, he even used an alias when he registered at his San Francisco hotel on this trip.<\/p>\n

Two years ago, he said, someone in the Bay Area threatened to kill him over his decision to end life support for the brain-damaged Schiavo. And even though that person was prosecuted and jailed, Greer said, he’s taking no chances.<\/p>\n

“It is a little unnerving,” he said. “I still can’t see a strange car come down my street without wondering [who’s behind the steering wheel].”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Greer is hardly alone. At the ABA conference, attendees heard from a New Jersey judge who ruled in favor of gay rights, and soon had his home address announced on a right-wing radio show. A Texas judge ordered anti-abortion activists to stop harassing doctors, and received so many death threats, she was put under constant police protection. A California judge was targeted after reversing a death-penalty sentence.<\/p>\n

Some extreme elements of the right just don’t take losing court cases very well.
\n
\nIt’s a problem at the Supreme Court, as well.<\/p>\n

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said she and former Justice Sandra Day O’Connor have been the targets of death threats from the “irrational fringe” of society, people apparently spurred by Republican criticism of the high court.<\/p>\n

Ginsburg revealed in a speech in South Africa last month that she and O’Connor were threatened a year ago by someone who called on the Internet for the immediate “patriotic” killing of the justices.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Now, just to be clear, I’m not blaming far-right lawmakers for death threats against judges. As John Cole noted<\/a> a while back, Tom DeLay and others engage in “blatant pandering to the lunatic wing of the religious right,” but they aren’t directly responsible for how lunatics respond to their comments. These guys aren’t literally<\/i> advocating violence against judges.<\/p>\n

But there’s apparently a sense among a small but vocal part of the right that judges are fair game, and when activists don’t like a ruling, the appropriate response is to threaten violence. As a result, we have jurists making reasonable decisions, based on the law, who frequently have to live in fear.<\/p>\n

If Republican leaders stopped stoking these dangerous fires, it might help a bit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For far too long, the right has been using some over-the-top rhetoric when it comes to the federal judiciary. Even conservative lawmakers have pushed the envelope pretty hard. Tom DeLay, as you’ll recall, made some veiled threats against judges after the Terri Schiavo controversy. Shortly thereafter, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said judges who are the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12562"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12562\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}