Friday, April 01, 2005

Sometimes heroes are hard to come by...

...so I've learned to take them where I find them. Sometimes they're surprising folks found in surprising places. Take, for instance, Judge Stanley Birch, elevated to his lifelong tenure on the Federal bench by none other than Papa Bush. Known as one of the more conservative members of his court, I'd never heard of him until a couple of days ago, but these words from the final Schiavo decision (PDF) exact nothing but my deep admiration...
In resolving the Schiavo controversy it is my judgment that, despite sincere and altruistic motivation, the legislative and executive branches of our government have acted in a manner demonstrably at odds with our Founding Fathers' blueprint for the governance of a free people - our Constitution. Since I have sworn, as have they, to uphold and defend that Covenant, I must respectfully concur in the denial of the request for rehearing en banc.

****

The separation of powers implicit in our constitutional design was created "to assure, as nearly as possible, that each branch of government would confine itself to its assigned responsibility." But when the fervor of political passions moves the Executive and the Legislative branches to act in ways inimical to basic constitutional principles, it is the duty of the judiciary to intervene. If sacrifices to the independence of the judiciary are permitted today, precedent is established for the constitutional transgressions of tomorrow.
Just so. And make special not of the last words there. We're about to enter yet another round of attacks on the independent judiciary by the radical destructionists in the Republican Party. They would have you think that by adhering to their Constitutional role and refusing to be politically and emotionally blackmailed by the destructionist crowd they've 'thumbed their nose' at the Congress. Nothing, of course, could be less true. One bright light in the dismal murkiness of the Schiavo case was the response of every court, at every level. Adherence to the rule of law was the one principle that was maintained throughout, by every court, every jurist, regardless of ideology.

It was perfectly fitting that the final decision spoke directly to the importance of maintaining, in John Adam's famous formulation, 'a government of laws rather than of men,' and that it came from the pen of a judge appointed by George H.W. Bush. It's even better that his words fit the situation so perfectly.

Stanley Birch is the Upper Left Hero of the Day.

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