Elections Have Consequences

So why did liberals such as myself work so hard putting Democrats in congress this November? Why did we get out the vote through phone banking and canvassing? Why did we even raise and contribute money for pro-life Senatorial candidates such as Bob Casey of Pennsylvania? Well, as the Washington Post reports,

“The Bush administration officially withdrew four of its most controversial nominations to the federal appellate bench yesterday, bowing to the political reality of a Senate Judiciary Committee under the control of Democrats who show no inclination to confirm them.”

First Republican senators obstructed President Clinton’s moderate judicial nominations. Then they threatened to invoke the “nuclear option” and eliminate the filibuster to put counter culture reactionaries on the federal bench. Most recently we had to swallow a corporatist in Chief Justice John Roberts and the father of the unitary executive with Associate Justice Samuel Alito.

Republicans considered this payback because Democrats prevented Robert Bork from being nominated to the Supreme Court in 1987. Bork believed the state had the right to infringe upon a husband and wife's privacy and not allow couples to use contraception in the privacy of their own home. In the bizarre logic of Bork and other "strict constructionists" since the Constitution doesn't mention Trojans one has no legitimate expectation their rights to use them are protected.

Compared to the damage done to our judicial system and Constitution in recent years this is a minor victory. But I’ll take it. Hopefully, electing a Democratic President in 2008 will help restore rationality to the judiciary and we can detoxify our country from the strict constructionists. For too long we've allowed jurists dedicated to reversing social progress and eliminating economic justice established over the past sixty years to pollute the federal bench. The first step to restoring decency in America is proper respect for civil liberties, individual rights and the law. The withdrawal of Bush’s nominees is small step in the right direction.