MARCH 13 . 2004 • Q-NOTES
Politics
17
GOP appoints most 'activist judges'
Repubticans try smear campaign
with misleading info
by Lisa Hardaway
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Everybody
knows the phrase by now. President
George W. Bush used it when talk about
same-sex marriage moved to the front
burner just a few
weeks ago.
“Activist judges,”
Bush said, in refer
ence to judges in
Massachusetts who
have found no justi
fiable reason to
deny marriage to
same-sex partners.
These days just
about every conser
vative on Capitol Hill
brandishes the
phrase like a defen
sive sword.
"Who are these
so-called ‘activist
judges’ and where
are they?” asks Kevin Cathcart, executive
director of 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
Judge David O.
Carter is one of
several conserva
tive GOP
appointees now
being labeled as
'activist judges.'
down Texas’s law banning gay couples
from having sex. “The claim that ‘activist
judges’ are behind these rulings for equali
ty 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.
“It’s apparent what right-wing politi
cians and extremist groups mean when
they say ‘activist judge.”' Cathcart contin
ues. “It’s a term used to smear a judge who
takes the Constitution and fairness seri
ously rather than ruling in favor of the
right-wing agenda.”
Take a look at who the Bush camp is
attempting to smear:
Judge David 0. Carter
judge David O, Carter is a federal judge
in heavily conservative Orange County.
Calif. During the Vietnam War, Carter
served in the U.S. Marine Cprps and was
wounded in combat. He received a Purple
Heart and a Bronze Star and he remains a
member ofthe Veterans of Foreign Wars,
the American Legion and Disabled
Vietnam Veterans. As a judge. Carter has
issued a number of conservative rulings,
including one that ordered a city to cover the
cost of a religious group’s use of public prop
erty for a National Day of Prayer if it also cov
ered costs of civic events by other groups.
In 2000 Carter issued an injunction
requiring public school officials to allow a
Gay-Straight Alliance student club to
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meet on campus because it allowed other
non-curriculum-related groups to meet.
Right-wing groups protested outside the
school regularly and spoke out against
the ruling, even though Carter was fol
lowing clear law on equal access for
groups in schools.
Justice Anthony M. Kennedy
lustice Anthony M. Kennedy has served
on the U.S. Supreme Court since 1988. He
was appointed to the court by President
Ronald Reagan. After becoming close to
then-Governor Ronald Reagan’s inner cir
cle, he was appointed to a federal appeals
court by Republican President Gerald Ford
in 1975. Kennedy built a record and a rep
utation as a conservative leader on the
heavily liberal federal appeals court in
California, in 1988, Reagan nominated him
to the U.S. Supreme Court, and he won
unanimous confirmation in the U.S.
Senate.
in 2003 Kennedy wrote the majority
opinion in a landmark U.S. Supreme Court
decision that struck down state laws mak
ing it a crime for gay people to have sex. In
fact four of the six justices who voted to
strike down the law were appointed by
Republican presidents.
Justice John P. Dunne
justice john P. Dunne is a state court
judge in Long Island, N.Y. Dunne served in
the Korean War from 1952-53. He was
wounded in combat and received a Purple
Heart. For several years in the 1980s
Dunne earned a living as a town
Republican leader, a post that made him
chairman of the local Republican Party.
in 2003 Dunne ruled that a gay man
could sue a hospital for the wrongful
death of his late partner; it was the first
case in the nation that respected a couple
with a civil union from Vermont as
“spouses.”
Justice Judith A. Cowin
justice judith A. Cowin has served on
the Massachusetts state high court since
1999. She was appointed by Republican
Governor A. Paul Cellucci. Cowin has a
reputation as a tough judge, and The Boston
Globe calls her "one of the court’s more
conservative voices.”
In 2003 and again in 2004 Cowin
joined other judges on the state’s high
court in a historic ruling that same-sex
couples must be allowed to marry. Of
the court’s seven justices hearing the
case, six were appointed by Republican
governors.
Justice Jim Hannah
justice jim Hannah is an Associate
justice on the Arkansas State Supreme
Court. He was elected to an eight-year
term on the court in 2000. He has written
a variety of conservative legal decisions,
both in criminal and constitutional law.
in 2002, Hannah joined a unanimous
Arkansas Supreme Court ruling that struck
down a law making it a crime for gay peo
ple to have sex.
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