All Intensive Purposes

At the end of a typically fine column about the recent judge-bashing by Sen. Cornyn and Rep. DeLay, Dahlia Lithwick wonders why conservatives are hitting judges so hard:

How do Republicans possibly benefit politically from these broadsides against the judiciary as a whole? The narrowly targeted attacks on "liberal activist judges" were playing well all year; polls showed that the public really bought the idea. The suggestion that judges appointed by Democrats were all unprincipled laid the perfect groundwork for unleashing the "nuclear option" in the Senate. So, what possible purpose is there to these 11th-hour attacks on the entire bench? Why would anyone support doing away with the filibuster if all judges—and not just the liberal ones—are inherently corrupt and evil?

A few speculative possibilities: Perhaps, now that they control Congress and the presidency, the only target left to the right-wingers really is the judiciary. They feed on outrage, after all, and that was running somewhat dry. Or perhaps they truly feel that they can't control the judicial branch—since even staunchly Republican judges got it "wrong" in both the Schiavo cases and in Roper. In other words, it's no longer enough to pack the courts with Republican appointees; they are already packed that way. This latter fact sets up the argument that only the most extreme right-wing ideologues can ever be confirmed in the future; since even moderate Republicans are all eventually corrupted on the bench.

Or maybe the plan all along was to simply subordinate the judicial branch to the popular will; using a cocktail of court-stripping legislation, impeachment threats, and term limits to ensure that the co-equal independent judiciary is only co-equal and independent when it comes to reviewing a handful of disputes over federal fishing law. If that really is the long game, it's awfully shortsighted. Crippling the whole judiciary will, in the long run, create a lot more problems than it resolves.

A couple of other possibilities: Maybe the cultural conservatives know something from Frist that we don't -- that he doesn't have the votes to eliminate the veto -- and so are escalating the victimization rhetoric in anticipation of losing that battle. Or maybe they just don't like the courts.

Meanwhile, Sen. Shelby [memo to Republicans: you guys can keep him] is back with another delightful proposal to rein in the courts:

Constitution Restoration Act of 2005 - Amends the Federal judicial code to prohibit the U.S. Supreme Court and the Federal district courts from exercising jurisdiction over any matter in which relief is sought against an entity of Federal, State, or local government or an officer or agent of such government concerning that entity's, officer's, or agent's acknowledgment of God as the sovereign source of law, liberty, or government.

From 100 monkeys typing, via RT. Per fringey, the bill (S. 520) also "[p]rovides that any Supreme Court justice or Federal court judge who exceeds the jurisdictional limitations of this Act shall be deemed to have committed an offense for which the justice or judge may be removed, and to have violated the standard of good behavior required of Article III judges by the Constitution." Dee-lightful.