Senate Race Tied to Federal Bench's Makeup, Conservatives Warn
by Jim Brown
November 7, 2006
(AgapePress) - - A pro-family lawyer says the fate of America's federal court system, including the United States Supreme Court, is at stake in the fight for control of the U.S. Senate. Former Family Research Council president Ken Connor says whoever winds up controlling the Senate on Tuesday night will have a huge impact, particularly on the future of the high court. Connor, a Washington lawyer and chairman of the Center for a Just Society, says if Democrats pick up at least six seats and take control of the Senate, he predicts they will only confirm judges who pose as legislators. "The reason for that, I think, is really quite simple," he says. "It's much easier, for instance, to get a majority of the Supreme Court on your side."
After all, the pro-family attorney explains, to achieve a majority on the high court, one needs to secure only need five votes, as opposed to the number required for a majority in both houses. "So making law through judges is a very efficient process," he says. "Unfortunately, it's very destructive of the democratic process."
Many Democrats, finding themselves unable to get their agendas through the duly elected legislative bodies, are quite willing if able "to foist" those agendas on the American people through a small number of judges who are willing to legislate from the bench, Connor contends. For such liberal strategists, he insists, "all they really care about is the outcome, and that's the way they'll go."
It is likely that President Bush will have an opportunity to nominate another Supreme Court justice before his White House term expires, Connor points out, since Justice John Paul Stephens is 85 years old, and some of the other justices are suffering from poor health. But if Democrats wrest control of power away from Senate Republicans in these elections, the attorney suggests that conservative nominees may have considerable difficulty getting confirmed, and America can expect to see even more judicial activism in the federal courts system.
Genevieve Wood, a former spokesperson for the Republican National Committee and current director of strategic operations at the Heritage Foundation, also hopes values voters will be taking the issue of the judiciary into consideration as they head to the polls today. Every issue conservatives care about, she asserts, from the definition of marriage to the pro-life agenda and even to the war on terror is affected by what happens in America's courtrooms.
"And if you look at Nancy Pelosi's voting record," Wood says, "if you look at Harry Reid's voting record, if you look at their rhetoric on what kind of judges they would like to see sitting on our nation's benches, I think people would be greatly concerned." Pelosi and Reid are the ranking Democrats in the House and Senate, respectively.
Individuals who are pro-life and those who think marriage ought to be between one man and one woman "ought to be voting for conservatives who are going to appoint those types of judges to uphold those positions," the Heritage Foundation official says. "A Harry Reid Senate, a Democratically controlled Senate, is not going to do that," she insists.
Wood is predicting a tight election. She says she is not expecting to see a landslide, either for Democrats or for Republicans.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
