Putting Politics Before the Constitution

Decisions by the Federal Courts in the Bush Era
Introduction to the Alliance for Justice report "Judicial Selection During the Bush Administration"

All Republican senators signed a letter March 4 to President Obama threatening to use filibusters to block a majority, up-or-down vote on any appointments to the federal courts they find unacceptable.

This followed the threat issued just two days after last November's elections by the second-ranking Republican in the Senate, Jon Kyl of Arizona, who said majority votes would be prevented on any Obama appointee who does not share top Republicans' "view on cases related to social, law and order and business issues."

That raises the obvious question: just what is that "view" that these Republicans are defending? What sort of judges do they favor?

The best way to set their rhetoric aside and look at the facts is to examine the record of the judges who were put on the federal bench when they were in power.

The Alliance for Justice report Judicial Selection During the Bush Administration reviews cases decided during the Bush years by the U.S. Supreme Court and the federal courts of appeals.

A clear pattern emerges.

• Despite talk from some senators about "strict constructionism" and not "legislating from the bench," judges installed when Republicans had the chance frequently pursued a political agenda rather than upholding the Constitution and the law.
• Their political agenda consistently favored those at the top in our society instead of ensuring equal justice and personal freedoms for everyone.

As the report describes in more detail, the current Supreme Court…

• Ruled that a major corporation could cheat a woman who worked there for 19 years out of tens of thousands of dollars in pay.
• Took away the long established right of a man who was injured because of a defective heart device to hold the manufacturer accountable for the damage.
• Said that government officials can fire or demote whistleblowers for exposing corruption, waste, or fraud to their supervisors.
• Cut by 90 percent what a jury had awarded the victims of a massive Exxon oil spill.
• Ruled that customers can't sue bankers or others who helped corporations such as Enron to defraud them.

Appeals court judges appointed by President Bush have shown the same political bias.

• One ruled that Chevron could legally mislead employees about their retirement benefits.
• Another ruled that consumers can be required to pay for merchandise received in the mail even if they never ordered it.
• Yet another allowed hospital executives to fire a nurse after she said publicly that she believed new staffing policies jeopardized the health of mothers and their babies.

President Obama has made it clear that he intends to appoint judges who will uphold the Constitution and the law to provide equal justice and personal freedoms for all, not just a few. That would be a dramatic departure from the appointments of the past eight years, and that is why he is being threatened with opposition in the Senate.

» Click here to read the cases report, "Putting Politics Before the Constitution"
» Click here to read the full report, "Judicial Selection During the Bush Administration: 2008 Edition"