Tearing Down Justice

The Americans United for Separation of Church and State has provided the L.A. Times with an audio recording of evangelical leaders discussing tactics for reining in so-called “activist judges.”

“There’s more than one way to skin a cat, and there’s more than one way to take a black robe off the bench,” said Tony Perkins, president of the conservative Family Research Council, his comments caught on tape. Perkins described attending a meeting with congressional leaders where the strategy of stripping funding from certain courts was “prominently” discussed.

“What they’re thinking of is not only the fact of just making these courts go away and re-creating them the next day but also defunding them,” Perkins said. Instead of undertaking the long process of trying to impeach judges, said Perkins, Congress could use its appropriations authority to “just take away the bench, all of his staff, and he’s just sitting out there with nothing to do.”

Also caught on tape is Focus On The Family founder James Dobson. “Very few people know this, that Congress can simply disenfranchise a court,” Dobson said. “They don’t have to fire anybody or impeach them or go through that battle. All they have to do is say the 9th Circuit [U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals] doesn’t exist anymore, and it’s gone.

” Meanwhile, back in Congress, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay lashed out at Republican appointed Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy for being a “judicial activist.” “We’ve got Justice Kennedy writing decisions based upon international law, not the Constitution of the United States? That’s just outrageous,” Delay said. “And not only that, but he said in session that he does his own research on the Internet? That is just incredibly outrageous.” Open criticism of individual Supreme Court Justices has been rare for members of congress, but conservative ire over so-called activist judges apparently knows no bounds.

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