Judging Harriet Miers
Democrats must rise up and challenge conservative claptrap about "activist judges" By Stephen J. Fortunato Jr.
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The confirmation of John Roberts as Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court and the nomination on October 3 of Harriet E. Miers as an Associate Justice are the right-wing's exclamation points at the end of a line of neoconservative judges who have paraded onto the federal bench during George W. Bush's presidency. Miers will provide no solace to those who think law in a constitutional democracy should protect individuals from official excesses and corporate predations.
Like John Roberts, Miers spent her professional career representing the interests of mega-corporations until she became a counselor to a right-wing administration. Like Roberts, her record is devoid of any work on behalf of poor people accused of crime or groups fighting for their civil rights (in a 1999 survey of the country's largest law firms, The American Lawyer ranked the 206-lawyer firm headed by Miers as 53rd out of 69 comparably sized offices in terms of the amount of pro bono work provided to the community). And like Roberts she passes Bush's unconstitutional prerequisite that federal judges have a religious faith. Her former pastor told The New York Times, "Harriet has placed her faith in Jesus." This type of religiosity has been required by Bush of all his appointees, though Article VI of the United States Constitution unambiguously provides that “no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States." Read more >>>
A federal court decision forces Voices in the Wilderness to disband By Erin Polgreen
After 10 years of delegations, peace activism and non-violent protest, Chicago-based Voices in the Wilderness (VitW) was silenced on August 12, when a federal judge ordered the group to pay a $20,000 civil penalty for delivering medical supplies to Iraq without a permit. Read more >>>
School choice policies sacrifice universal education By Linda Baker
Portland, Ore.--On any given weekday here, the residential streets are clogged with parents driving their kids away from neighborhood schools. Harboring visions of creative and challenging academics, upwardly mobile mothers and fathers head for one of the district's 20 special focus and language immersion schools, or other schools deemed superior by virtue of test scores or socio-economic enrollment patterns. As of two years ago, hundreds of Portland kids have also left their neighborhood school under No Child Left Behind (NCLB), the national education law under which schools that earn a "failing" designation must give students priority transfer to another district school. Read more >>>
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