California, which had been considering banning membership in the Boy Scouts for judges, has acted to do so. The California Supreme Court, not the Legislature Supreme Soviet, has declared that affiliation with the Boy Scouts is formally forbidden for judges.
“California’s Supreme Court voted Friday to prohibit state judges from belonging to the Boy Scouts on grounds that the group discriminates against gays.
“The court said its seven justices unanimously voted to heed a recommendation by its ethics advisory committee barring judges’ affiliation with the organization.”
Since Superior court judges are elected, and the higher courts face retention elections, the California Supreme Court has prohibited the voters from choosing a judge who exercises their freedom of association contrary to the opinion of seven people in black robes.
So much for “democracy”…
Is it even constitutional under the state’s laws, let alone the US laws, for the judges to make a ruling like this rather than the legislature. I’m sure communists and muslims are allowed to be judges.
IIRC, they were empowered to make the decision themselves.
The decision is a clear violation of the US Constitution, in that the ability to serve as a judge is one of the benefits (and responsibilities) that every state extends to its’ citizens. To deny people this ability because of their political affiliation or beliefs is therefore inherently prejudicial. It doesn’t matter that the law gives the State Supreme Court the power to make such a decison. If the decision deprives law-abiding citizens of equal protection or equal access to state offices, then it is inherently wrong and, therefore, unconstitutional in principle.
The basis for it is rooted in declaring certain organizations as “hate groups”. An even worse example than this is the use of the Southern Poverty Law Center (an extremely left-wing political organization) to train officer candidates at West Point on how to recognize potential domestic terrorist groups. The SPLC has listed Focus on The Family as a “hate group” simply because it refuses to acknowledge gay marriage.
This is how it starts, people. First, create an inherently deceptive device (like “hate crimes legislation”) that can be easily bent to your purpose. Start out by applying hate crime legislation to people and groups (like skinheads and the Klan) who actually are committing crimes. Then use the ambiguity of “hate crimes” to slowly accustomer people to treating “hate” as though it were, itself, a “crime”. Then brand as a “hater” everyone who disagrees with you on some social isssue (like gay marriage). Move the power to elect judges and other officials from the citizens to the judges. Then have your lackeys and stooges on the bench start bending the laws against your opponents.
We are seeing the transition from democracy to dictatorship happening in America today, slowly but surely, just as it happened in Weimar Germany. First, Jews (and others) were disparaged. (“Hate crimes / hate groups”.) Then then were banned from holding positions of public office. Then those positions were stacked with Nazi party stooges who, predictably, issued further rulings against Jews.
I realize that likening the Left’s policies to the Nazis will sound excessive. The morbid predictions about Nazi intentions made by a few pessemistic Jews in the early 1930’s probably sounded excessive, even paranoid, to their fellow Jews. By the time it became apparent that the reality was even worse than a morbid imagination could have envisioned, it was too late to do anything about it. California has banned qualified, adult law-abiding citizens from being judges, simply because those citizens are associated with a legal and respected organization that does not subscribe to the Left’s agenda. If they are not confronted and stopped, now, then the day will come (actually, it will probably be the middle of the night when they round you up and take you away, simply because you don’t agree with them.