Fundamentalist groups and their Republican allies are trying to insure the nomination of conservative judges. But a glance at some controversial cases during the last five years show that most of the ruling judges were appointed or nominated by Republican administrations.
• Goodridge v. Department of Public Health
In 2003, the Massachusetts high court ruled 4-3 in favor of same-sex marriages within the state. Chief Justice Margaret H. Marshall wrote the majority opinion nearly seven years after her appointment by Republican governor William Weld. The ruling found that the ban on same-sex marriage violated the state's constitution.
• Terri Schiavo
Chief Judge J. L. Edmondson for the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused to review a previous decision to forbid the reinsertion of Schiavo's feeding tube. Edmondson was nominated by President Reagan in 1986. After the court's decision, Senator Tom DeLay warned that lawmakers "will look at an arrogant and out of control judiciary that thumbs its nose at Congress and the President."
• Lawrence vs. Texas
Justice Anthony Kennedy authored the 2003 majority opinion by the U.S. Supreme Court in a 6-3 vote that Constitution-protected liberties allow adults (in this case, two gay men) the right to choose their own relationships and "still retain their dignity as free persons." Kennedy was a Ronald Reagan nominee.
• Alabama's commandments
U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama ruled in 2003 that the presence of a 5,300-pound monument to the Ten Commandments within the Alabama State Judicial Building violated the U.S. Constitution. (U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson was nominated by President Jimmy Carter in 1980.) Two similar cases are now before the U.S. Supreme Court.
-AG
This article appears in May 4-10, 2005.