O'Connor: Republicans "Challenge the Freedoms of All Americans"

Retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor -- a Reagan appointee -- confirmed yesterday what NJDC and other organizations have been saying: In O'Connor's own words, Republicans "challenge the independence of judges and the freedoms of all Americans" when they attack judicial independence.

In a speech Thursday at Georgetown University (click here for audio of NPR's reporting), O'Connor clearly and concisely asserted that top GOP leaders have posed a direct threat to our constitutional freedoms when they attack judges and the judiciary. (UPDATE: click here for a rush transcript from RawStory.)

Without mentioning his name, O'Connor quoted then-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's attacks on the courts during "Justice Sunday" (click here and here for more on Justice Sunday). O'Connor then said, "This was after the federal courts had applied Congress' one-time-only statute about Schiavo as it was written -- not as the Congressman might have wished it were written. The response to this flagrant display of judicial restraint was that the Congressman blasted the courts," O'Connor added sarcastically.

"It gets worse," O'Connor said, noting the many death threats and increasing violent attacks against judges. Referring to Republican Senator John Cornyn of Texas -- again obliquely, not in name -- O'Connor said, "It doesn't help when a high-profile senator suggests there may be a connection between violence against judges and decisions that the senator disagrees with." See NJDC's report "GOP Leaders Threaten Independent Judiciary" for more on Senator Cornyn's deeply troubling remarks last year.

A GOP-appointed Supreme Court Justice citing the dangers of Republican interference in America's independent judiciary further proves what we already know: GOP attacks on judges and the judiciary threaten the very rule of law in America. The eloquence of Sandra Day O'Connor just gives further weight to these dire warnings.

Comments

[jerry]

Sadly, what O'Connor and NPR both left out were their own roles in aiding and abetting these attacks.

In O'Connor's tenure, what was the largest act of judicial activism at the Supreme Court? Bush V. Gore.

Saying shame on O'Connor doesn't even begin to describe her hypocrisy.

[Hedley Lamarr]

I would like to have been a fly on the wall when she met and made small talk with Alito. Did she tell him he was an embarrassment to replace one of Reagan's best moves?

[Daddy-O]

Just one question:

If she really feels this way, then WHY THE HELL DID SHE RETIRE?

Just a little self-absorbed, I have to conclude. That would explain it.