Media Watchdog Wants Judges Reined In With Term Limits
by Chad Groening
September 14, 2005
(AgapePress) - The head of an organization dedicated to curbing obscenity in the media says the U.S. Supreme Court has made rulings in recent years that have favored the "free speech" of smut merchants instead of enforcing laws designed to protect society from that material. Robert Peters is president of the watchdog group Morality in Media. With the confirmation hearings of Supreme Court nominee John Roberts in full swing, Peters is concerned that recent decisions of the high court have invalidated laws designed to protect American children from indecency on the broadcast airwaves and the Internet.
Due to an ideologically slanted bench, Peters believes the direction the court will take on curbing obscene content is obvious. "This madness that it's all on the shoulders of the parents, and that if you don't like to live in a moral sewer as an adult that you can move to wherever, that ethic is going to prevail," he says, "because clearly there are already three -- and I think four -- judges who think that way."
The Morality in Media spokesman believes it is time to acknowledge that federal judges are not always the impartial administrators of justice that many citizens imagine. The partisanship that comes into play during the confirmation process may be clear indication of this. But if "these Democrats and liberal Republicans vote against Judge Roberts and don't support an amendment to limit the tenure of these judges," Peters observes, "then I don't think they really support the Constitution. I think they're supporting something that would be more akin to a judicial oligarchy."
That is one reason why Peters believes lifetime judicial appointments should be abolished. It is time, he asserts, to "introduce an amendment to the Constitution to say that this life tenure stuff for judges is a thing of the past; and my suggestion would be that no judge would serve beyond 12 years -- maybe that would be a compromise."
To enact this policy, Peters adds, would be effectively to admit "that, in significant measure, the courts are politicized and that in some issues it's going to go back and forth every so often, because it is political, in contrast to judicial." Recognizing this, he believes it is time to take steps to limit the power federal judges wield on society.
Chad Groening, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
