Sandra Day O'Connor speaks

[46zilzal]

Former top judge says US risks edging near to dictatorship

· Sandra Day O'Connor warns of rightwing attacks
· Lawyers 'must speak up' to protect judiciary

By Julian Borger / Guardian

Sandra Day O'Connor, a Republican-appointed judge who retired last month after 24 years on the supreme court, has said the US is in danger of edging towards dictatorship if the party's rightwingers continue to attack the judiciary.

In a strongly worded speech at Georgetown University, reported by National Public Radio and the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin, Ms O'Connor took aim at Republican leaders whose repeated denunciations of the courts for alleged liberal bias could, she said, be contributing to a climate of violence against judges.

Ms O'Connor, nominated by Ronald Reagan as the first woman supreme court justice, declared: "We must be ever-vigilant against those who would strong-arm the judiciary."

She pointed to autocracies in the developing world and former Communist countries as lessons on where interference with the judiciary might lead. "It takes a lot of degeneration before a country falls into dictatorship, but we should avoid these ends by avoiding these beginnings."

[PaceAdvantage]

Violence against judges? What have I missed?

[lsbets]

Violence against judges? What have I missed?

I was wondering the same thing myself.

[Tom]

My first thought...menopause? :eek:

[46zilzal]

Violence against judges? What have I missed?
wasn't a judge murdered in Chicago I think and the fellow responsible was going after and man and wife judge team? He had been recruited by a guy who had come before ONE of them and was a white supremacist?

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0503010123mar01,1,5333417.story?coll=chi-newslocal-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true

[Tom]

Well, there you have it a trend!

[Steve 'StatMan']

The judge wasn't there, but the judge's husband and mother were murdered.

The judge was trying Matt Hale, a white supremisist, whose writings and website encouraged a man to kill several people in Chicagoland. While in jail and on trial, Hale tried to hire someone to murder the judge. But, it turned out that wasn't how these people were killed. Another man, despondent and very down on his luck, was a bit disfigured after a surgury but lost his malpractice case that the judge presided over, I believe a few months earlier. He broke into the house, expecting to murder the judge, but murdered the only 2 in the house, the husband and the mother. The man then fled in his car to Milwaukee, where he later commited suicide.

[GaryG]

There was one it Atlanta that is just about to go to trial. A defendant whe felt that the system was against him got a deputy's gun, killed the deputy, judge and 3 or 4 others before he was recaptured. I think sometimes the court room deputys get a little too relaxed and are not ready for something like this. This guy is certainly a prime candidate for the death penalty. Vigilante justice would have been fine as well.

[46zilzal]

Vigilante justice would have been fine as well.
wonderful. Change the law, or forget it altogether

[PaceAdvantage]

So violence against judges is an invention that came about post 2000?

[JustRalph]

There was one it Atlanta that is just about to go to trial. A defendant whe felt that the system was against him got a deputy's gun, killed the deputy, judge and 3 or 4 others before he was recaptured. I think sometimes the court room deputys get a little too relaxed and are not ready for something like this. This guy is certainly a prime candidate for the death penalty. Vigilante justice would have been fine as well.

Isn't that the one where the girl hostage talked the guy into giving up? She got a book deal and a reward........then it came out that they spent the day smoking crack and doing the horizontal bop?

[GaryG]

Isn't that the one where the girl hostage talked the guy into giving up? She got a book deal and a reward........then it came out that they spent the day smoking crack and doing the horizontal bop?Yep, that's it. Guess a little dope and poontang went to his head....:lol: He's pleading not guilty though....he didn't do nuttin, know what I'm sayin?

[ljb]

So violence against judges is an invention that came about post 2000?
Yes, now you are starting to get with the program. Keep listening and soon you will be as smart as Tom. ;)

[DJofSD]

the US is in danger of edging towards dictatorship if the party's rightwingers continue to attack the judiciary.

You want to see what a real dictatorship is like? Just look 90 miles off the southern tip of Florida.

[Tom]

You want to see what a real dictatorship is like? Just look 90 miles off the southern tip of Florida.

Everyone who makes these ridiculous statements should be made to spend a month in Cuba, or Iran, or whatever is applicable.

This dames comments say a lot about the stupid Kux Kux Kourt's recent desicions...and she is the poster girl for age limtis for justices. This head full of mush had been sitting on the higest court in the land until a couple of qualified justices were found.

Sandy, baby......warm up some milk, get a rocker. Your 15 mintues are over. Fade away.

[PaceAdvantage]

Yes, now you are starting to get with the program. Keep listening and soon you will be as smart as Tom. ;)


Really? No violence against judges before the year 2000? Balderdash!

[hcap]

Post 1...

Former top judge says US risks edging near to dictatorship

· Sandra Day O'Connor warns of rightwing attacks
· Lawyers 'must speak up' to protect judiciary

By Julian Borger / Guardian

Sandra Day O'Connor, a Republican-appointed judge who retired last month after 24 years on the supreme court, has said the US is in danger of edging towards dictatorship if the party's rightwingers continue to attack the judiciary.

In a strongly worded speech at Georgetown University, reported by National Public Radio and the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin, Ms O'Connor took aim at Republican leaders whose repeated denunciations of the courts for alleged liberal bias could, she said, be contributing to a climate of violence against judges.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0313-03.htm

In her address to an audience of corporate lawyers on Thursday, Ms O'Connor singled out a warning to the judiciary issued last year by Tom DeLay, the former Republican leader in the House of Representatives, over a court ruling in a controversial "right to die" case.

After the decision last March that ordered a brain-dead woman in Florida, Terri Schiavo, removed from life support, Mr DeLay said: "The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behaviour."

Mr DeLay later called for the impeachment of judges involved in the Schiavo case, and called for more scrutiny of "an arrogant, out-of-control, unaccountable judiciary that thumbed their nose at Congress and the president".

[DJofSD]

In her address to an audience of corporate lawyers

Does the unwashed masses ever get to hear from these holy-than-thou in such a manner? No. They should come down from their thrones sometimes.

[lsbets]

Well, it is certainly Justice O'Connors right to speak her mind and say what she believes.

Just as it is my right, and every other Americans right, to speak out when we see what we feel is a judiciary overstepping the bounds of its Constitutional authority and attempting to assume legislative powers from the bench. The tyranny of the unelected judiciary is a much greater threat to our freedom than any rhetoric coming from a politician. It might hurt her feelings to see judges criticized for their actions, but when the courts legislate and act by judicial fiat to impose their will in opposition to those who the people elected, it is our obligation to speak out and seek change.