{"id":7317,"date":"2005-03-31T11:00:51","date_gmt":"2005-03-31T18:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2005\/03\/31\/the-only-hero.html"},"modified":"2005-03-31T11:00:51","modified_gmt":"2005-03-31T18:00:51","slug":"the_only_hero","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/03\/31\/the_only_hero.html","title":{"rendered":"The only hero"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ed Brayton talks<\/a> about (not his words) “the only true unvarnished hero in the recent ‘legal’ phase of the Terri Schiavo saga,” 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Stanley F. Birch, Jr., who took the Administration and Congress to task<\/a> for their unconstitutional dabbling in the Schiavo case.<\/p>\n

Judge Birch was essentially ending any possibility of being nominated to the Supreme Court (you don’t win nominations by accusing both the White House and the Congress of brazenly flouting the Constitution for political gain), and he had been mentioned by many as a potential nominee because of his solidly conservative views and reputation.<\/p>\n

He then talks — wisely — about the value of an independent judiciary, and its foundational nature (in the Federalist Papers<\/em><\/a>) as a check on the other branches.<\/p>\n

That is indeed what the battle over “judicial activism” is really all about. It’s a sustained attack on the independence of the judiciary undertaken because the judiciary is such an easy target for elected politicians to take aim at. It’s a power grab by the legislature, which doesn’t like to be told no, which is precisely what the courts were invented to do. We owe Judge Birch a great thanks for reminding us of that once again.<\/p>\n

Neither party has been immune to this, but as the party in power, the GOP has been the most egregious offender over the last few years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ed Brayton talks about (not his words) “the only true unvarnished hero in the recent ‘legal’ phase of the Terri Schiavo saga,” 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Stanley…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-law"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":43714,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/07\/20\/lady-liberty-bouncer-edition.html","url_meta":{"origin":7317,"position":0},"title":"Lady Liberty (Bouncer Edition)","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 20-Jul-14 10:48pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Yes, Rep. Gohmert. It's an invasion. Let's call in the military. \u00a0And, after they've busted some caps in those kids' asses, maybe they can do something about all those Irish, Eye-ties, Chinks, and Pollacks that keep insisting on coming over and stealing our jobs, too.(h\/t +George Wiman\u00a0and +Ed Brayton)\ufeff America's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7355,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/03\/23\/more_schiavo_ne.html","url_meta":{"origin":7317,"position":1},"title":"More Schiavo news","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 23-Mar-05 3:43pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Let's see. Florida local, appellate, and supreme courts have ruled that repeated, exhaustive, thorough, and law-conforming reviews of Terri Schiavo's condition and presumptive wishes under Florida state law indicate that...","rel":"","context":"In "Politics & Law"","block_context":{"text":"Politics & Law","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16160,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/11\/07\/unblogged-bits-for-saturday-07-november-2009.html","url_meta":{"origin":7317,"position":2},"title":"Unblogged Bits for Saturday, 07 November 2009","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 7-Nov-09 5:00pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries .... GOP Rep Pence: Dems Who Block Reform Will Be Akin To World War II Vets Who Risked Lives For Freedom - And again with the Nazi comparisons. Jerks. GOP Gone Wild: Unruly Republicans Silence\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Potpourri"","block_context":{"text":"Potpourri","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/potpourri"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":132670,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/01\/27\/you-can-depend-on-the-dear-leader-for-all-the-truth-you-need-to-have.html","url_meta":{"origin":7317,"position":3},"title":"You can depend on the Dear Leader for all the truth you need to have","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 27-Jan-17 11:11am","format":false,"excerpt":"Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Tex.) chairs the House Science Committee, so clearly he knows all about sciencey stuff[1] and the ever-driving search for Truth[2].So when he tells the American Public that \"Better to get your news directly from the president. In fact, it might be the only way to get the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13776,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/02\/18\/why-gays-need-marriage-to-protect-them-from-bigots-like-this.html","url_meta":{"origin":7317,"position":4},"title":"Why gays need marriage — to protect them from bigots like this","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 18-Feb-09 7:18am","format":false,"excerpt":"Opponents of gay marriage -- and even gay \"civil union\" -- argue that it's all unnecessary because, well, if they really want to have all those protections and rights that straight married couples get automatically and by force of law, then they can go to a lawyer and get nearly\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "LGBTQ &c"","block_context":{"text":"LGBTQ &c","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/gay-stuff"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":135257,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/11\/02\/trump-yet-learn-words-impact.html","url_meta":{"origin":7317,"position":5},"title":"Trump has yet to learn that his words have the impact they do","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 2-Nov-17 7:55am","format":false,"excerpt":"Oh, he believes they have an impact -- that many people are enchanted, enthralled, inspired, and oh-so-admiring of his words, his beautiful words, some of the best words ever. But they have a legal impact, too. And he just doesn't get it. His Muslimish travel ban got into big trouble\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/trump%2Bnyc%2Bterrorist%2Bdeath%2Bpenalty.PNGimgmax%3D660.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/trump%2Bnyc%2Bterrorist%2Bdeath%2Bpenalty.PNGimgmax%3D660.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/trump%2Bnyc%2Bterrorist%2Bdeath%2Bpenalty.PNGimgmax%3D660.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7317\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}