Number 12 Who are the real judicial 'activists'?

By Alliance for Justice staff
civilrights.org
February 22, 2005

President Bush has said that he is selecting judges who "represent mainstream values," who "will strictly and faithfully interpret the law," and who "won't use the bench from which to legislate." But don't let the president's purported scorn for "activist" judges fool you. The recycled nominees he sent back to Congress on February 14, 2005, are the real activists. Their out-of-the-mainstream records are replete with instances of following their own agendas rather than established law. If confirmed to the bench, they would almost certainly fulfill the White House's fervent hope of using the federal courts to advance its political goals - advancing the interests of big business over workers and consumers, rolling back constitutional and statutory protections for individual rights and liberties, and limiting Congress's power to address national problems.

From 1995-2000, Senate Republicans blocked more than 60 of President Clinton's judicial nominees. By contrast, even though the Bush administration jettisoned the practice of working with the opposing party in the Senate, Senate Democrats have cooperated in confirming 204 of President Bush's 214 nominees considered on the Senate floor. They have done so despite the fact that many of the appointees did not, as President Bush promised, "represent mainstream values." Notwithstanding the records of such confirmed nominees, the few remaining unconfirmed and now-recycled nominees are simply beyond the pale. They will be precisely the kind of out-of-the-mainstream, "activist" judges that the president claims he doesn't want. Indeed, some of these men and women are so controversial that they are opposed by organizations that never took any position on judicial nominations before President Bush came to office.

from SAVE OUR COURTS.org