San Diego Union Tribune: Checks, balances

[question everything]

UNION-TRIBUNE EDITORIAL

Checks, balances

Nation's Founding Fathers got it right

April 17, 2005

If you happen to be a teacher of high school civics, when the time comes to teach your students about the three branches of government and how those branches – executive, legislative and judicial – all interact with each other, you don't need textbooks. You can just hold up the morning newspaper.

Current events are such that Americans can learn, or relearn, many of those lessons in real time. Take the idea of an independent judiciary, and why that concept sometimes frustrates those who think judges should be accountable for their decisions. What concerns critics is that many judges – especially those who have lifetime appointments – don't have to answer to voters, to elected officials or to other institutions of government.

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, is more critical than most. It goes back to Terri Schiavo, the brain-damaged woman in Florida who died March 31 after a state judge ordered her feeding tube removed. DeLay had hoped that federal judges would intervene in the case. When they did not, the House majority leader vowed: "The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior."

Vice President Dick Cheney was having none of that kind of talk. He called DeLay's remarks inappropriate and reminded Americans that this is why federal judges have lifetime appointments – to protect them from political pressure. Now, two judicial heavyweights have jumped in. Appearing last week before a congressional hearing on the Supreme Court's budget, Supreme Court Justices Anthony Kennedy and Clarence Thomas also put in a good word for maintaining an independent judiciary.

(snip)

This particular episode may be resolved now, but, before long, we'll probably hear more criticism of judges. The critics are wrong about one thing: judges are accountable. They have to answer to other judges who sit on higher courts. And, when there is cause, those courts can overturn a judge's decision. It happens all the time. Even the nine justices who sit on the Supreme Court are accountable in some way. They have to answer to history, and to what future configurations of the high court will say about the decisions they make today.

(snip)

Find this article at:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20050417/news_mz1ed17botto.html

[Liberty Belle]

1. Wow. This is an ultra-conservative newspaper, so I'm

surprised and pleased to see this. I have a theory that the mainstream media may be starting to turn against the Bush regime, and this is one more sign.

Thanks for posting.

[question everything]

2. A few weeks ago it also had an editorial bashing DeLay

I think that for old-fashioned conservatives, who believe in small government, the religious right taking over their party is a cause for concern.

[Liberty Belle]

3. Perhaps so.

Considering that this newspaper's publisher paid $100,000 for elephant fireworks at the GOP convention here a few years back, this is a startling development. As I recall, they stood behind Nixon to the bitter end.