Good Enough Justice for Now
By James Bowden (07/29/05)
Every Conservative that I read, save Anne Coulter – America’s clear-eyed, conscience-driven, genius-witted intellectual Cassandra, cheers President Bush’s appointment of Judge John Roberts for the U.S. Supreme Court. That makes him a good enough choice for me – for now. The proof will be in his decisions. This time next year Americans will know if Bush gave us year one of hope for the Republic or another hindrance to freedom and opportunity.
Much is made of Roberts’ ‘devout’ Roman Catholicism which is distinctly different from the convenient, cafeteria Catholicism of Liberals like Justice Anthony Kennedy. But, the label doesn’t carry enough quality assurance for Conservatives. True, the best serving Conservative justices are Roman Catholic. Yet, the religious behavior statistics on www.barna.org indicate that self-identified ‘born again’ Christians and Bible reading/believing Christians are minorities among Catholics. That distinction - Bible reading and believing as an outward sign of a born-again Christian - is more instructive than any religious denomination to indicate Conservative fealty to the Constitution. And the Constitution says no religious tests for Federal offices.
Certainly, there is an atheist, strict constructionist, Constitutional loyalist somewhere. But, the challenge in judicial nominations is not to find the anomaly, but to find the closest to a sure thing Conservative without a religious test. Yet, a believer in the immutable truth of the Holy Bible may see the immutable words of the U.S. Constitution as they are written, not imagined. A justice who believes in a Supreme Ruler and Judge of the Universe may not rule like a wannabe Priest-King. The link between Judeo-Christian orthodoxy and Conservative Constitutional worldview isn’t an argument for civil religion on the bench. Quite the contrary. The need is for true diversity that matters.
Consider the phony diversity of Liberal Human Secularists. Liberals look for four or five women on the Supreme Court and one Hispanic. They dream of the day a Muslim will be appointed. Yet, the Liberal diversity math is way off. If Roberts is approved, then four out of nine justices will be Roman Catholic. That means 25% of the population has 44% of the seats. Likewise, Jews with 2% in the census have 22% of the seats. If diversity really meant inclusiveness for diversity that matters - ideas - then one or two of the Justices would be Baptist (18% of the U.S.) of the Pickering and Huckabee stripes not the Clinton and Gore spots. Also, three justices would be Southerners. Presently, Clarence Thomas is the only Southerner.
Maybe there is a better way to find a trueheart Conservative than to inflict diversity quotas – even the ones about religion and region that count. Ask these questions:
* Who is the Creator of our Rights in the Declaration of Independence? Is it the Judeo-Christian God of the Holy Bible?
* What is a Natural Law that is above the U.S. Constitution which is the supreme law of the U.S.A.? Name a temporal law, like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. did in his ‘Letter from a Birmingham Jail’, that should be broken by an individual - even though it is legal according to the legislature, executive and judiciary – because it violates Natural Law.
* How many days a week do you read the Holy Bible? How long?
* How completely would you deconstruct ‘settled’ law when it is profoundly bad law – written by judges from the bench?
* Do you believe in imaginary rights in the Constitution? Please read out loud the words in the Constitution creating the right to ‘privacy’ to abort babies and to commit sodomy.
* If Gov. Jeb Bush had followed the Florida Constitution and used his ‘supreme’ executive power to save the life of an innocent woman, convicted of nothing but being incapacitated, would you support any court judgment if it came to SCOTUS?
These questions are better than the Liberals’ needling. The Senate Democrats want to force Judge Roberts to say something about Roe vs. Wade. Simple win-win for them. If Roberts rolls and salutes court invented abortion on demand, partial birth abortion infanticide, abortion that silences free speech around clinics, abortion that denies parental authority, abortion that killed over 40 million humans so far in America, then President Bush and his Party will pay the price at the polls. If Roberts says the court erred, the Democrats have a green light with the Main Stream Media (MSM) to vote ‘no’ and demonize him.
Is Roberts a good enough Justice to decide good enough justice? We’ll judge him in a year.
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