death penalty news August 11, 2005
USA: Roberts and death penalty For many years now, the U.S. Supreme Court has been used as the political playground of activists who could never get their causes approved by a popular vote of the people or through the legislative process. In 1973, activists got their way when the court struck down popular legal restrictions on abortion in most states. In 1996 in the Romer v. Evans ruling, the court overturned a provision of the Colorado constitution approved by voters in the state that denied special group rights on the basis of sexual proclivities. Later, in 2003, in the Lawrence v. Texas ruling, the court struck down laws against sodomy across the United States. What's the next big activist cause for this activist court? I'll tell you. It will be the death penalty. Remember where you read it first. There are already rumblings within the court. Over the weekend, Justice John Paul Stevens, 85, let the world know he thinks it's time for the high priests in black robes to rule from on high about capital punishment. Ruth Bader Ginsburg has made similar noises in the past. And now we find out that Judge John Roberts, nominated to replace Sandra Day O'Connor, not only did pro bono legal work to support the homosexual activists in the Romer case, he also provided some 25 hours of free legal time on behalf John Ferguson, a Florida death-row inmate who killed eight people. Ferguson, 56, was a triggerman in the murders of eight people in two separate, apparently drug-related shootings. His accomplices, Beauford J. White and Marvin Francois, have already been executed, but Ferguson's appeals have continued based on claims he is mentally ill. The White House explains Roberts took the Romer case and the Ferguson case because his firm asked him to do so. Let me ask you: Would you work on behalf of the most historic legal attack on Judeo-Christian sexual moral values if your company asked you to do so? Would you trust to a lifetime Supreme Court appointment a man who did so eagerly? Would you help craft legal arguments to protect the life of a convicted mass murderer because your company asked you to do so? Would you trust to a lifetime Supreme Court appointment a man who did so without hesitation? I wouldn't. I don't. And I suspect most Americans feel the same way ? even those at significantly lower pay grades than Judge Roberts and with a lot more to lose by a taking principled, moral position. We don't know much about where Roberts stands on the key issues facing America. He's a blank slate ? much like David Souter and Anthony Kennedy were. He has been careful not to write or say much publicly that would give the American people a clue about his worldview. He's the stealth Supreme Court nominee George W. Bush was apparently seeking. Conservative activists threw their confirmation support to him early and don't want to look foolish changing their minds now that the facts are beginning to raise doubts. Liberal activists continue to raise questions, as they always will about any Republican presidential appointment. But, I am predicting they will fall in line now they smell another Souter or Kennedy within their grasp. What we desperately need on the court are several more Antonin Scalias or Clarence Thomases. That's what George W. Bush promised those who supported him in 2000 and 2004. What he has delivered instead is a nominee who will get overwhelming support by the U.S. Senate. Not one Republican will stand in his way and most, if not all, Democrats will soon jump on the bandwagon. And the political activists who misuse the courts to force their agenda down the throats of the American people and at the expense of the Constitution will be the big winners once again. (Joseph Farah is founder, editor and chief executive officer of WND and a nationally syndicated radio talk-show host. He is also the founder of WND Books. In addition to his daily column in WND, he writes a nationally syndicated weekly column available to U.S. newspapers through Creators Syndicate.) (source: Between the Lines column, WorldNetDaily)
