Appeals Courts Pushed to Right by Bush Choices

[babylonsister]

Appeals Courts Pushed to Right by Bush Choices

By CHARLIE SAVAGE
Published: October 28, 2008


WASHINGTON — After a group of doctors challenged a South Dakota law forcing them to inform women that abortions “terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique living human being” — using exactly that language — President Bush’s appointees to the federal appeals courts took control.

A federal trial judge, stating that whether a fetus is human life is a matter of debate, had blocked the state from enforcing the 2005 law as a likely violation of doctors’ First Amendment rights. And an appeals court panel had upheld the injunction.

But this past June, the full United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit voted 7 to 4 to overrule those decisions and allow the statute to take immediate effect. The majority argued that it is objectively true that human life begins at conception, and that the state can force doctors to say so.

Mr. Bush had appointed six of the seven judges in the conservative majority. His administration has transformed the nation’s federal appeals courts, advancing a conservative legal revolution that began nearly three decades ago under President Ronald Reagan.

more...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/29/us/29judges.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

[COLGATE4]

1. We will suffer the consequences of Smirk's appointments for decades

We will suffer the consequences of Smirk's appointments to the courts for decades to come. As noted, the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals (the most important of all the Federal Appellate courts) has been packed with Right Wingers from the Federalist Society. So have many of the other appellate courts. The Supreme Court is within on Justice of being a right-wing institution, and only Obama's election can prevent that from happening. Even so, given that the Justices most likely to retire (or die) are all Liberals, the best Obama can hope for is to get a 5-4 Liberal balance on the Supreme Court. Smirk, probably without even understanding the reach and impact of what he did, has managed to put our nation's courts in a Conservative Reactionary path that will only be undone in 20-30 years, if then. Depressing beyond words.