A Second Look | Orrin Hatch is Looking for Activist Judges.

via Orrin Hatch: Obama Speaking In “Code”.

WASHINGTON — A senior Republican on the Senate committee that will consider President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee says he’s worried the president might pick a judicial activist instead of someone who bases decisions on the law.

Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah says Obama’s comment last week about naming a justice who understands Americans’ problems and has empathy for people is “code” for putting in place a person who legislates from the bench.

Here’s some activism for ya, Orrin. Look no further.

Laurence H. Silberman: right-wing activist judge

Laurence H. Silberman is a Federal Appellate Judge for the District of Columbia. Last year, in March of 2007, he wrote the opinion in the case Parker v. District of Columbia holding that the District’s ban on ownership of handguns violated the Second Amendment. In a 2-1 decision the Appeals Court struck down a law that was written and passed by the city’s democratically elected government. The long standing ban on handguns had achieved the status of settled law then along comes a right-wing shill for Reagan/Bush and throws out another protection of the innocent in favor of the gun lobby and the NRA.  From Common Dreams contributor, Jesse Jackson, March 2007:

The boneheaded decision not only ignores precedent, it also reveals the real threat of a court system packed with right-wing zealots. Silberman is a notorious right-wing operative, deeply compromised by his partisan involvement in the effort to smear Bill Clinton. He is the kind of justice that President Bush denounces regularly — a judicial activist, prepared to elevate his own political ideology over that of the elected representatives of the people, and eager to engage in judicial lawmaking if it fits his ideological bent.

The Appellate Court for the District of Columbia’s activism set up the Supreme Court’s activism, voting 5-4 upholding the lower courts’ decision. Right-wing activist judges once again ruled against the people in favor of guns.

Remember the acronym “RATS”. It stands for the right wing of the Supreme Court -  Justices Roberts, Alito, Thomas, and Scalia who ruled in the majority and they were able to convince Kennedy, who is the swing vote now that Ginsberg is gone.

In a city, and at a period in time, where a hand-gun ban is not only necessary in light of the crime involving guns but demanded by the people as a protective measure, then to have right-wing activist judges come along and laugh at the democratic process that put the law in place, is the epitome of what Orrin Hatch would call “legislating from the bench”.