Sunday, July 27, 2003

Earlier this month, the Nevada Supreme Court ordered the state legislature to enact a tax increase in violation of a two-thirds majority requirement under the Nevada constitution.  This week, the Illinois Supreme Court, acting on its own initiative, ordered the state to pay all judges in the state a cost of living increase after the Governor vetoed legislation doing so.  The latter action was taken without even a lawsuit having been filed. Are we beginning to see a truly renegade judiciary?  Those who strongly disagree with certain key judicial decisions often assail them as "lawless", but at least in those cases the forms of judicial behavior are observed.  When a court decides to take action on its own, without any case before it, and expects the other branches of government to accept its action as legitimate and binding, it strains credulity to think that they will do so. 7:13:51 PM     The hearings are being held quietly.  The official listings of upcoming hearings do not even mention the Judiciary Committee, but today's Lansing State Journal reports that the hearing on Saad's nomination will be held on Wednesday, July 30.  On Friday, Todd Gaziano published "Judicial Misconduct in the Sixth Circuit: Another Reason to Free the Michigan Four" at TownHall.com.  This article recounts the publicly-obscure scandal that broke over the actions of Chief Judge Boyce Martin of the Sixth Circuit in connection with the University of Michigan affirmative action case, and makes the important point that the high number of vacancies among active judgeships on that court made these shenanigans possible. 7:58:44 AM

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