Jewish World Review Sept. 17, 2003 / 20 Elul, 5763

Joe Scarborough

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Judicial politics at its worst


http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com | Well, well, well, the Ninth Circuit is at it again. They have delayed the recall election in California.

This is judicial politics at its worst. You're hearing a lot of critics talking about how the 9th Circuit is the most liberal court in the land. You'll certainly get no argument from me here. After all, this is the same court that wanted to ban the Pledge of Allegiance and also supported banning handguns.

But I don't believe this court's liberalism is the most troubling part of this story for American democracy. Let me tell you what is the most troubling part of this story: It looks like this election in California is going to be another election that will be decided on the judicial bench, instead of at the ballot box.

Look what happened in the 2000 election. Of course, you had the Bush-Gore election, and then you had the Florida Supreme Court stepping in and making a decision that conservatives believed couldn't be justified. And I'm one of them. I thought the Florida Supreme Court decision was horrible law. But then you go to the United States Supreme Court. And I'm one of the few conservatives who will say, it's very interesting how conservatives became champions of a judicial doctrine they hadn't seemed to care about before, while liberals on the Supreme Court became the champions of original intent.

Now we go to California: Unfortunately, judicial politics is going to step in. It's going to help the people of California elect a governor for the most populated state. This is dangerous. We have got to elect our people. We've got to elect our leaders. We've got to elect our governors. We've got to elect our presidents at the ballot box, instead of allowing judges to continue to nose their way into the process in deciding who is going to run our democratic institutions.

It's a disgrace.

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Former Congressman Joe Scarborough (R-Fla.) hosts “Scarborough Country,” 10 p.m. ET, weeknights on MSNBC. Comment by clicking here.


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