I feel compelled to respond to the Sept. 25 letter written by Michael Klein regarding the Senate Judiciary Committee’s decision to decline the nomination of Priscilla Owen, currently of the Texas Supreme Court, to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. (“Partisan politics: Nomination of Judge Owen axed.”) His nose is out of joint because Sen. Maria Cantwell and the rest of the committee did not rubber-stamp Bush’s ultra-conservative nominee, and feels that this was a purely political act. Obviously he fails to understand our system of checks and balances, so I will provide a 30-second lesson. Our founding fathers saw fit to establish the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government in order to ensure that these decisions of importance be given the scrutiny that they deserve.
What this means to me is that reckless cowboys like the one in the Oval Office not be given free rein to change the course of history and trample on the rights of the citizens. In the case of this administration, 79 of George’s judicial picks have been approved, and Owen is only the second reject. That sounds pretty cooperative to me.
Mr. Klein, Maria Cantwell is doing what we elected her to do. Most of us would rather not be dragged back into the dark ages by right-wing fundamentalist judges, and if Sen. Cantwell stands in the way of placing them on the bench, I applaud her efforts wholeheartedly. We’ve seen what John Ashcroft has done with his position, after promising to merely uphold the law, rather than to change or create it. Priscilla Owen’s history as an anti-choice, pro-big-business and anti-consumer activist should certainly disqualify her for a federal court position. If Texas likes her, they can keep her.
Snohomish
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