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National Campaign Challenges GOP Lies about 'Activist Judges'


Republicans Appointed Most Judges Making Pro-Gay Decisions

Legal Experts Pinpoint Dangers & Inaccuracies in Bush Rhetoric

Compiled by GayToday
Lambda Legal

Activist Judge? Judge David O. Carter is from conservative Orange County, California but still issued an injunction requiring public school officials to allow a Gay-Straight Alliance student club to meet on campus. New York, New York--Saying that many recent gay-rights legal victories were decided by conservative judges, Lambda Legal addressed the U.S. media yesterday, providing details about its national campaign challenging claims that so-called "activist judges" make it necessary to pass a constitutional amendment banning marriages by same-sex couples.

"Who are these so-called 'activist judges' and where are they?" asked Kevin Cathcart, Executive Director Lambda Legal. Cathcart noted that Republican governors appointed six of the seven justices on the Massachusetts high court that recently ruled gay couples have the right to marry, and Republican presidents appointed four of the six U.S. Supreme Court justices who voted to strike down Texas's law banning gay couples from having sex. "The claim that 'activist judges' are behind these rulings for equality is nothing short of a fraud. Our Constitution requires judges to be fair-minded and independent, regardless of their political beliefs and sometimes in the face of strong political opposition."

Lambda Legal's multi-pronged, multi-state campaign will challenge misinformation and hold politicians and organizations responsible for using false claims to advance an antigay political agenda. The campaign, called "Judging Discrimination," begins today, Cathcart said, and coincides with a U.S. Senate subcommittee hearing on Judicial Activism vs. Democracy that will debate the proposed constitutional amendment.

The sustained campaign includes:

  • Organizing with college groups at the alma maters of political leaders (including President Bush, adviser Karl Rove and the Senators behind tomorrow's hearing) to provide "refresher civics courses" on the Constitution and the proper role of courts
  • Advertising in mainstream daily newspapers in targeted states starting this week
  • Monitoring the media for unchallenged or unanswered claims about "activist judges"
  • Encouraging citizen action, including letter-writing to elected officials
  • Providing in-depth information on the real story behind recent legal victories, along with action steps anyone can take, via a special website that will be launched today.

    The ads and the website feature several judges who have been labeled "activist judges" but are actually quite conservative - including an Arkansas Supreme Court justice, a U.S. Supreme Court justice, federal judges in Orange County, California, and Kentucky, a Massachusetts high court justice and a state court judge in New York who previously worked as a Republican Party official.

    "It's apparent what right-wing politicians and extremist groups mean when they say 'activist judge.' It's a term used to smear a judge who takes the Constitution and fairness seriously rather than ruling in favor of the right-wing agenda. President Bush, some members of Congress and many right-wing groups are using this fraud to fuel their attempts to write discrimination into our Constitution, and we won't allow it," Cathcart said. "In fact, civil-rights lawsuits involve real people facing real discrimination; fortunately, these cases are being decided by real judges rather than the bogeymen the right wing is fabricating with its rhetoric."

    Lambda Legal client John Langan had to go to state court to prove he had the right to stand up in court and question a hospital for his partner's wrongful death. Lambda Legal won a ruling that Langan was his partner's spouse because they had a civil union from Vermont, and the hospital is now appealing. "The judge in my case was a lifelong Republican and a former conservative activist, but he saw that Conrad was my spouse and that the law requires respect for our relationship," Langan said. "If the Constitution is changed like President Bush wants it to be, that judge's hands could be tied, and I could have no rights at all."

    Students in several states, including Idaho, are working with Lambda Legal to educate their communities and the U.S. Senators behind tomorrow's hearing. "We fully support Lambda Legal's campaign to combat lies the right wing is telling about 'activist judges' in order to advance their antigay agenda. Senator Larry Craig was once the student president at the University of Idaho. But apparently he never learned that the courts play an important role in protecting people from discrimination," said Aimee Stormo and Ann Henson, co-chairs of the University of Idaho Gay-Straight Alliance. "We're here to remind Senator Craig of a basic civics lesson: Judges must promote justice."
    Judge Judy Cowin was appointed by a Republican governor of Massachusetts to sit on the commonwealth's supreme court, and she ruled in favor of gay marriages

    National experts on the Constitution and the branches of government agree that using rhetoric about "activist judges" in order to build support for a constitutional amendment are inaccurate and dangerous. "From a constitutional perspective, I find it very troubling to hear opponents of same-sex marriage attack the role of courts in resolving this issue. In fact, the role of an independent judiciary in preserving individual rights is a tremendously important -- in fact, conservative -- American constitutional value. The founders of this nation explained that the judiciary's role is to prevent the tyranny of majorities and officials; majoritarian rule, without checks and balances, can erode freedoms ensured by the Bill of Rights," said Professor Margaret M. Russell, a constitutional law expert who teaches at Santa Clara University School of Law, a Jesuit institution.
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