< Stros activate Berkman | Main | The Grand Old Spending Party >
May 07, 2005
Ron Chernow on the independent judiciary
Ron Chernow -- the author of The House of Morgan (1990), The Warburgs (1994), Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. (1998), and last year's marvelous Alexander Hamilton (2004) -- writes this interesting NY Times op-ed in which he provides insightful historical perspective on the current political battle that is brewing over the misguided proposals of certain Republican Party politicians to cut off federal financing for the judiciary and even abolish some lower-level federal courts.
After explaining how President Thomas Jefferson and the Republicans attempted to undermine the independence of the American judiciary during the early 1800's after former President John Adams and the Federalist Party had stacked the federal judiciary immediately before Adams had left office, Mr. Chernow observes wisely:
So, before they starve the lower courts of funds, Republicans in Congress and the conservative evangelicals who support them would be wise to ponder these events of the early 1800's. For all the talk today of tyrannical judges, the judiciary still relies on Congress for its financing and on the executive branch to enforce its decisions. It could easily, once again, end up at the mercy of the other two branches, upsetting the delicate balance the framers intended.
Or, stated another way, if a leader of the stature of Thomas Jefferson almost compromised the independence of the judiciary, just think what damage Tom DeLay could do.
Posted by Tom at May 7, 2005 07:12 AM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://mtcgi.kir.com/mt-trackbk.cgi/1937
Comments
Post a comment
Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)