Conservatives Gather To Confront Judicial Activism
by Chad Groening and Bill Fancher
April 8, 2005
(AgapePress) - A conservative webmaster joined a group of activists this week to address the problem of activist judges attempting to advance agendas and influence social policy by legislating from the bench. This past week, RightMarch.com president Bill Greene attended a Washington, D.C., event called the "Confronting the Judicial War on Faith Conference." He says the conservative gathering aimed to address how to deal with the out of control judiciary in the United States.
"What we're really trying to focus on now at RightMarch.com, in conjunction with a number of other conservative, Christian, and pro-family groups nationwide, is this issue of judicial tyranny," Green says. "We're seeing the issue crop up even in the U.S. Senate, where you have liberal Democrats that are doing an unconstitutional judicial filibuster."
According to the RightMarch.com spokesman, activists judges are flouting the checks and balances that are supposed to be in place in American government. "We have judges on the state and federal level that are directly ignoring the will of people, he says. What we have is a judiciary that believes in judicial supremacy."
When this happens, Green says, "Instead of a separation of powers, instead of checks and balances between the three branches of government and between the federal and state governments, what we have is ... judicial supremacy where judges get to make the rules."
In fact, the RightMarch.com spokesman says, in this unbalanced scenario, the judges "get to basically make the laws instead of the legislators that are elected to do so, and the executive branch that's supposed to carry out what the legislature has passed."
One of the most egregious examples of the problem occurred recently, Green asserts, with the death of Terri Schiavo. The web-based activist believes the legislative and executive branches of government had the authority to intervene in the Schiavo case and stop the court-ordered starvation death of the disabled Florida woman.
But while those branches hesitate to take on the nation's activist judges, Green is among those urging U.S. citizens to act. He says it will take a grassroots effort by ordinary Americans to end the judicial tyranny that is gripping the country.
Did Media Work to Bias Public Toward Terri's Death?
Green is not the only one raising questions about the needless tragedy of Terri Schiavo's death. Some pro-life supporters are beginning to examine the role of the media in the case, and to question whether a pro-death slant in the presentation of the facts played any part in the outcome of that case.
Media polls indicated between 60% and 70% of Americans thought the Florida hospice patient's feeding and hydration tube should have been removed. But Bob Knight of the Culture and Family Institute says that is because Terri's condition was inaccurately described in those polls.
"I have to conclude that the American people were misled about Terri's condition," Knight says, "and that's why you saw such high poll numbers, with Americans seeming to indicate it was okay to pull the feeding tube." But when Terri's condition was accurately described, he adds, 80% of Americans said it was not right to remove the tube.
The CFI spokesman says the media also failed to report many of the facts in the Schiavo case. "How many people know that 33 physicians submitted affidavits disagreeing with the diagnosis of persistent vegetative state," he asks, "or that the judge just threw out the testimony of nurses and other caregivers who said, 'No, she was responsive'?"
Knight and other pro-life critics contend the mainstream media polls were used to sway public opinion and prevent politicians from taking more drastic action to save Terri's life. Between a disingenuous media and determined judicial activists, he feels the deck was stacked in favor of the 41-year-old woman's court-ordered death.
Chad Groening and Bill Fancher, regular contributors to AgapePress, are reporters for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
