Saturday, June 14, 2008

The Democrats' Court-Hacking Scheme

We know liberals don't like the US Constitution. It is becoming increasingly clear that they've got it in for the Michigan Constitution, as well.

There was the "Citizens for Michigan" scheme to have a new constitutional convention.

Now there is a new ballot initiative being circulated. Nick at RightMichigan.com has an excellent summary of the proposal.

Saul Anuzius has a video about the proposal.



The proposal would pretty much rewrite the Michigan Constitution. It would eliminate two seats from the Michigan Supreme Court, effectively firing Republican justices Robert Young and Stephen Markman. It would also eliminate seven court of appeals judges, six considered Republican. It would cut these judges' terms short, effectively repealing previous election results.

Perhaps even more egregious, the proposal would not only cut judges' pay, it would retroactively cut their pensions, forcing them to choose between resigning and losing much of their retirement money.

Who is behind this proposal? It is being circulated by an outfit called Progressive Campaigns out of California. Mark Brewer, Michigan democrat chairman, has endorsed it. Speculation about who is funding it has centered around billionaire Jon Stryker, who has a history of funding lying advertisements, but the funder has not been determined for certain.

It is hard to find the words to describe how outrageous this proposal is. The proposal is reminiscent of FDR's "court packing" scheme in the 1930's. When the Supreme Court struck down several of FDR's New Deal plans as unconstitutional, he proposed a bill on Congress to add six judges to the Supreme Court, appointed by himself, effectively neutralizing it as an independent branch of government. The reaction was outrage. One Senator said that the proposal deserved to be defeated so soundly that it would never be proposed again.

Democrats in Michigan are trying the opposite trick. Instead of adding judges, subtract them. Pass a constitutional amendment to fire the ones you don't like. Instead of a court-packing scheme, call it a court-hacking scheme.

This proposal shows utter contempt for the courts, the rule of law, and Michigan's Constitution. It must be defeated.

1 comment:

RightMichigan.com said...

"Court Hacking" is pretty well put. And that's just one of the countless problems with this bloated piece of parking lot legislation.

This thing reforms Lansing alright... it centralizes control among fewer, more all powerful bureaucrats. It reduces local control. It guts the judiciary and will create who knows how large of a backlog. It'll crowd the holding cells while draining the bench. It takes redistricting control out of the hands of the people's elected representatives and puts them in the hands of a small partisan panel of Lansing "insiders."

I'm all about reforming Lansing. Heck, I'm all about drastic change.

But we should be giving the power back to the people, not centralizing it in a city that's already broken.

--Nick
www.RightMichigan.com