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Sandra Day O'Connor: US risks edging near to dictatorship

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout: Debate & Discussion' started by wnes, Mar 14, 2006.

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  1. wnes

    wnes Contributing Member

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    http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1729396,00.html?gusrc=rss

    Former top judge says US risks edging near to dictatorship

    · Sandra Day O'Connor warns of rightwing attacks
    · Lawyers 'must speak up' to protect judiciary

    Julian Borger in Washington
    Monday March 13, 2006

    Sandra Day O'Connor, a Republican-appointed judge who retired last month after 24 years on the supreme court, has said the US is in danger of edging towards dictatorship if the party's rightwingers continue to attack the judiciary.

    In a strongly worded speech at Georgetown University, reported by National Public Radio and the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin, Ms O'Connor took aim at Republican leaders whose repeated denunciations of the courts for alleged liberal bias could, she said, be contributing to a climate of violence against judges.

    Ms O'Connor, nominated by Ronald Reagan as the first woman supreme court justice, declared: "We must be ever-vigilant against those who would strong-arm the judiciary."

    She pointed to autocracies in the developing world and former Communist countries as lessons on where interference with the judiciary might lead. "It takes a lot of degeneration before a country falls into dictatorship, but we should avoid these ends by avoiding these beginnings."

    In her address to an audience of corporate lawyers on Thursday, Ms O'Connor singled out a warning to the judiciary issued last year by Tom DeLay, the former Republican leader in the House of Representatives, over a court ruling in a controversial "right to die" case.

    After the decision last March that ordered a brain-dead woman in Florida, Terri Schiavo, removed from life support, Mr DeLay said: "The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behaviour."

    Mr DeLay later called for the impeachment of judges involved in the Schiavo case, and called for more scrutiny of "an arrogant, out-of-control, unaccountable judiciary that thumbed their nose at Congress and the president".

    Such threats, Ms O'Connor said, "pose a direct threat to our constitutional freedom", and she told the lawyers in her audience: "I want you to tune your ears to these attacks ... You have an obligation to speak up.

    "Statutes and constitutions do not protect judicial independence - people do," the retired supreme court justice said.

    She noted death threats against judges were on the rise and added that the situation was not helped by a senior senator's suggestion that there might be a connection between the violence against judges and the decisions they make.

    The senator she was referring to was John Cornyn, a Bush loyalist from Texas, who made his remarks last April, soon after a judge was shot dead in an Atlanta courtroom and the family of a federal judge was murdered in Illinois.

    Senator Cornyn said: "I don't know if there is a cause and effect connection, but we have seen some recent episodes of courthouse violence in this country ... And I wonder whether there may be some connection between the perception in some quarters, on some occasions, where judges are making political decisions yet are unaccountable to the public, that it builds up and builds up to the point where some people engage in violence."

    Although appointed by a Republican, Ms O'Connor voted with the supreme court's liberals on some divisive issues, including abortion, making her a frequent target for criticism from the right. After announcing that she intended to retire last year at the age of 75, she was replaced in February this year by Samuel Alito, who is generally regarded as being more consistently conservative.

    In her speech, Ms O'Connor said that if the courts did not occasionally make politicians mad they would not be doing their jobs, and their effectiveness "is premised on the notion that we won't be subject to retaliation for our judicial acts".
     
    #1 wnes, Mar 14, 2006
  2. Rocket River

    Rocket River Member

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    Didn't she decide to NOT retire because she didn't want Clinton to be able to Appoint someone?

    Rocket River
     
    #2 Rocket River, Mar 14, 2006
  3. rimrocker

    rimrocker Member

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    I have utter contempt for O'Connor. This just adds more to the utterness.
     
    #3 rimrocker, Mar 14, 2006
  4. wnes

    wnes Contributing Member

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    But how many people would have thought GW Bush is a divider, not a uniter (ooops I mean the other way around) before he was selected to be the Prez?
     
    #4 wnes, Mar 14, 2006
  5. Saint Louis

    Saint Louis Member

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    Hindsight again. Should have taken that early retirement package and let ol Bill pick.
     
    #5 Saint Louis, Mar 14, 2006
  6. basso

    basso Member
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    c'mon sandy baby, lighten up...
     
    #6 basso, Mar 14, 2006
  7. bejezuz

    bejezuz Member

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    Liberal my arse. I've read her opinions. She's pro-choice, but she also voted to restrict abortions in Casey. She's ain't Scalia, but she's not much more conservative than Kennedy, the guy everyone else expects to be the new "swingvote".
     
    #7 bejezuz, Mar 14, 2006
  8. wnes

    wnes Contributing Member

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    Look O'Connor is being attacked left and right, who says "moderates" have a platform in this country?
     
    #8 wnes, Mar 15, 2006
  9. insane man

    insane man Member

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    then why the hell did you decide to resign!
     
    #9 insane man, Mar 15, 2006
  10. krosfyah

    krosfyah Member

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    She's merely reciting that seperation of power is important...something we know you don't beleive in. Ah, screw the Constitution, right?
     
    #10 krosfyah, Mar 16, 2006
  11. MadMax

    MadMax Member

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    See, I like her. Probably because folks on the left and folks on the right both can't stand her.

    And she's dead on here. The attack on the judiciary as if they're doing something wrong when they interpret law is a joke.
     
    #11 MadMax, Mar 16, 2006
  12. mc mark

    mc mark Member

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    Good for her! And I must say it's a brave thing for her to say when we have right wing wackos out there threatening judges with death!

    ----
    WASHINGTON - 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.

    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.

    Security concerns among judges have been growing.

    Conservative commentator Ann Coulter joked earlier this year that Justice John Paul Stevens should be poisoned. Over the past few months O'Connor has complained that criticism, mainly by Republicans, has threatened judicial independence to deal with difficult issues like gay marriage.

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060315/ap_on_go_su_co/ginsburg_threats_2
     
    #12 mc mark, Mar 16, 2006
  13. basso

    basso Member
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    i can't believe no one got the riggins citation...
     
    #13 basso, Mar 16, 2006
  14. RocketMan Tex

    RocketMan Tex Member

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    Edging closer to a dictatorship?

    We've been living in a dictatorship since September 12, 2001.

    C'mon basso....prove me wrong!

    :p :D
     
    #14 RocketMan Tex, Mar 17, 2006
  15. Colt45

    Colt45 Member
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    I did, but didn't want to embarrass you by pointing out how you got it wrong. Since you're clamoring for attention, I'll educate you.

    He told her to "loosen up".
     
    #15 Colt45, Mar 17, 2006
  16. vlaurelio

    vlaurelio Member

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    maybe Cheney been convincing Ginsburg and O'Connor to go on a hunting trip with him
     
    #16 vlaurelio, Mar 17, 2006
  17. Lobo

    Lobo Member

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    "Edging towards dictatorship"...I'd say that's a little extreme.

    Sadly, violence and threats against judges is really nothing new, hasn't that been happening as long as there have been judges?

    I do find the comments from Sen. Cornyn to be extremely distasteful and irresponsible, however.
     
    #17 Lobo, Mar 17, 2006
  18. giddyup

    giddyup Member

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    Yet we have to see, and need to see, and must see, and owe it to the world to see all those "new" Abu Grahb photos? :confused:

    No backlash from those, right? People are actually dying from that catharsis...
     
    #18 giddyup, Mar 18, 2006
  19. krosfyah

    krosfyah Member

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    huh? You are equating America getting backlash for torturing prisoners in a war steeped in controversy that we instigated outside of our sovereign boarders... to... judges who are doing their jobs and getting murdered for it?

    Your opinion expresses a warped sense of reality.
     
    #19 krosfyah, Mar 18, 2006
  20. jisangNY1

    jisangNY1 Member

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    This just goes to show you that moderate voices in American politics are becoming a dying species in this country. Politics have tilted to the extreme left or right for both political parties and that has me worried for the future of
    our government. I've always believed that moderates and independents lend a voice of reason to our government and provide us with some balance from the bitter partisanship that has become a mainstay of politics these days. I applaud Sandra Day for speaking out and hope others' will follow in her footsteps.
     
    #20 jisangNY1, Mar 24, 2006
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