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Jewish World Review June 9, 1999 /25 Sivan 5759

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Econophone

Call a moratorium on Clinton judges

(JWR) ---- (http://www.jewishworldreview.com)
HERE'S A DELICIOUS IRONY: Bill Clinton, who 6 months ago was impeached for lying under oath and obstruction of justice, could end up appointing more judges than any of his predecessors.

To date, Clinton has put 306 of his soul mates on the bench, close to Reagan's record of 385. By the end of his second term, the perjurer in chief could have appointed 40 percent of the entire federal judiciary.

But in the twilight of his tenure, the confirmation process has slowed. The usually compliant Orrin Hatch, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, hasn't held a confirmation hearing this year -- which has set the establishment to whining about the unfairness of it all.

Clinton's judicial picks get high marks for diversity, we're told. His choices for the Supreme Court are praised as middle-of-the-roaders. This president's judicial nominations are diverse where it matters least -- gender and skin color. Intellectually, they reflect the variety of Stalinsts at a party congress.

Take Claudia Wilken, one of Clinton's first appointments, who was placed on the U.S. District Court for Northern California in 1993. In 1997, Wilken invalidated California's popularly enacted term-limitation amendment. Casting about for a rationale, Wilken determined term limits violate the 14th Amendment because voters who prefer politicians who've been in office for eternity can't vote for their hacks of choice.

How her opinion could be reconciled with the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution, limiting presidents to two terms in office, Wilken didn't say. The Supreme Court overturned the decision.

Fast forward to 1998, when Wilken held that San Francisco was perfectly within its rights in forcing companies that do business with the city to provide health insurance for domestic partners.

The ordinance is constitutional because it "effectuates a legitimate local public interest to combat discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation," Wilken insisted in an opinion that read like a manifesto.

Another of Clinton's Oliver Wendells, William Fletcher, went on the federal appeals court despite a total lack of courtroom experience. Who needs experience when they have theories? A former law professor, Fletcher believes judges may declare legislatures "chronically in default" and assume their functions. He says out loud what most Clinton appointees believe in their hearts.

Other Clinton judges have: enjoined the enforcement of a state ban on partial-birth abortions, rejected a student-initiated graduation prayer, forced an Ohio municipality to remove a cross from its city seal and voted to overturn a federal law restricting the broadcast of obscene material to the hours of 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.

But doubtless, Clinton's crowning achievement was the nomination of Frederica Massiah-Jackson to the district court. A state judge from Philadelphia, Massiah-Jackson was forced to withdraw when Republican senators (in a rare show of determination) said, "No way in hell!"

Massiah-Jackson's record was described by Philadelphia's Democratic district attorney as "replete with instances of leniency toward criminals, an adversarial attitude toward police and a hostile attitude toward prosecutors."

Her acquittal rate was 60 percent higher than the average for Philadelphia judges. She once swore at a prosecutor in her courtroom and on another occasion declared that both capital punishment and three-strikes laws are racist and unconstitutional.

Given her brilliance, it's a wonder that the president didn't nominate Massiah-Jackson for the Supreme Court. Instead, he chose those notorious moderates Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Stephen Breyer, who have consistently taken an activist approach on everything from religion in the public sphere and term limitation to racial preferences.

Republicans, who pay lip service to judicial restraint, have been far too obliging to this president. As Tom Jipping of the Free Congress Foundation notes, when Democrats controlled the Senate and Republicans the White House from 1987 to 1992, Congress denied hearings to an average of 7.3 GOP judicial nominees a year. When the roles were reversed (1995 to 1998), on average Republicans blocked hearings for only 4.3 nominees each year.

Given this president's demonstrated contempt for our system of justice, it would be fitting to call a moratorium on any further Clinton judicial appointments. It would also be a blow for representative government.


Up

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12/18/97: Bosnia, Haiti, and how not to conduct a foreign policy


©1999, Creators Syndicate