Last week my wife and I visited civil rights and cultural sites in Memphis and Little Rock. We learned about the important roles the federal judiciary played in the 1960s and 1970s to insure that black citizens enjoyed the same blessings of liberty as their white brothers and sisters. While in Little Rock, I received word that the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago had issued a decision in the voter ID case denying rehearing by the full 11-judge court. There was a vigorous dissent by 4 of the 11 judges. But I quickly observed that each of the 7 judges who voted to uphold Indiana’s new photo ID requirement for voters was appointed by a President named either Reagan or Bush.

The politicization of the federal judiciary is a relatively recent development. Many of the federal judges who had the courage and wisdom to strike down Jim Crow laws in the South were appointed by President Eisenhower. Justices Warren and Brennan, both Eisenhower appointees, led the charge to eradicate racial and economic restrictions on the franchise, such as literacy tests and poll taxes. They also helped bring an end to electoral structures, such as malapportioned state legislatures, that diluted the value of the vote. I especially recall Justice Warren’s now famous words that the “right to vote freely for the candidate of one’s choice is the essence of a democratic society, and any restrictions on that right strike at the heart of representative government”

Today, overt politicization of the federal judiciary and U.S. Department of Justice is rampant. Nowhere is this clearer than in the current controversy surrounding Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and the Bush Administration’s abrupt firing of 8 Republican U.S. Attorneys for their perceived lack of zeal in investigating allegations of “voter fraud” or prosecuting Democratic officeholders, or simply because they had indicted and obtained convictions of corrupt Republican politicians. At least 3 top aides to Gonzales have now resigned, and one of those three, Monica Goodling, has refused to testify before a Senate committee investigating these discharges on the grounds her testimony might incriminate her. Goodling graduated from Messiah College and Regent University Law School. Messiah describes itself as “committed to an embracing evangelical spirit”. Regent was founded by Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson.

To make matters worse, the persons appointed to replace those 8 fired U.S. attorneys are ideological zealots. One, Rachel Paulose, was described by three of her deputies who last week resigned in protest as being “ideologically driven” and possessing a “dictatorial managerial style”. This raises the obvious question, “what about the other 85 U.S. attorneys who were not fired?” We now have the news that one of the “loyal Bushies” who kept his job as U.S. Attorney, Steven Biskupic of Milwaukee, recently indicted and obtained a conviction against a government bureaucrat in a case that implicated Wisconsin’s Democratic governor. This week a 3-judge panel of the 7th Circuit summarily threw out that conviction, with Circuit Judge Diane Wood stating that the evidence against the defendant was “beyond thin”.

The politicization of the federal judiciary and the U.S. Attorneys’ offices is unprecedented in our nation’s history. It is a frightening development, one that Congress must continue in its efforts to get to the bottom of.

William R Groth's blog | login or register to post comments