|
WORD COUNT
668
JULY 13, 2005
EVEN LIBERALS WILL
MISS CONSERVATIVE O’CONNOR – by Donald Kaul
You know that
liberalism in this country is at low ebb when liberals go around
mourning the loss of Sandra Day O’Connor on the Supreme Court.
Not that Justice
O’Connor was so awful. She was the deciding vote in cases that upheld a
woman’s right to abortion, ruled prayer at high school graduations
unconstitutional, struck down Nebraska’s ban on “partial birth
abortions,” upheld the use of race as a “plus factor” in college
admissions and held that the display of the Ten Commandments on
courthouse walls was unconstitutional. All of these are more or less the
liberal position.
But let’s get real.
She was a conservative. During her nearly 24 years on the Court she
voted with Chief Justice William Rehnquist about 70 percent of the time
in cases that were not unanimously decided. In decisions that made
conservatives hearts go pitty-pat she was the key vote in upholding the
use of publicly financed vouchers for religious school tuition,
rejecting a constitutional basis for gay rights, allowing the Boy Scouts
of America to exclude homosexuals, striking down the Gun-Free Schools
Zones Act and refusing to rule that the death penalty was racially
discriminatory.
And, most
egregiously, she sided with the conservative (and Republican) majority
on the Court in stopping the Florida recount in 2000, thereby handing
the election to George W. Bush. It was one of the Court’s worst
decisions in recent decades, not quite up there with Dred Scott (the one
that, in effect, made the Civil War inevitable) but close.
Moreover, it violated
the principles that members of the conservative Court majority had
espoused for years: a strict, narrow reading of the Constitution and a
bias toward federal deference to state authority.
Instead of leaving
the Florida recount to be fought out by the state Supreme Court and
legislature, as the federalist principles they held in such high regard
demanded, the Supremes moved in and gave the game to Mr. Bush.
How bad was the
decision? So bad that no one in the majority had the nerve to sign it.
It also contained the proviso that it should not be considered a
precedent for any subsequent case. That bad.
Still and all, it can
be said of Ms. O’Connor that she was truly a remarkable woman. She
graduated third in her class at Stanford law school (not chopped liver)
but was unable to get a high profile clerkship or a job with a
prestigious law firm because, well, she was a woman.
So, she got married,
raised a family, entered public life and became the majority leader of
the Arizona Senate, the first woman in the nation to hold such a post.
She was appointed to the state appeals court by a Democrat, then to the
Supreme Court by Ronald Reagan as our first woman Justice.
Her main strength,
and one that argues for diversity on the court, was that she brought to
the Court the unique perspective of someone who had been discriminated
against because of her gender, yet one whose eventual rise owed a great
deal to affirmative action. (No Justice before her, all men, had come to
the court carrying such modest judicial credentials.) Both sides of that
seemingly contradictory personal history are reflected in her decisions.
And now liberals are
sorry to see her go because they know her successor will be much, much
worse.
The name of Attorney
General Alberto Gonzalez, the man who couldn’t find anything wrong with
our prison interrogation practices at Abu Graib, has been put forward as
a candidate and already right wing groups are forming torchlight parades
to protest his consideration because he isn’t conservative enough.
Meanwhile, Democrats
are forming ranks for a bloody battle but the best they can hope for is
a nominee who is very conservative but not crazy. Federal Appeals Court
Judge Harvey Wilkinson III would fill that bill, but don’t hold your
breath. The radical right likes crazy.
Fasten your seat
belts, folks. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.
--
Donald Kaul recently
retired as Washington columnist for the “Des Moines Register.” He has
covered the foolishness in our nation’s capital for 29 years, winning a
number of modestly coveted awards along the way. Email: donald.kaul2@verizon.net
-- A photo of Donald Kaul is available
CLICK HERE
# # # # # # |
