The Patriot Post® · Questioning Ginsburg's Personal Judgment
If she can nap during the State of the Union, it shouldn’t surprise us when people wonder if Ruth Bader Ginsburg is asleep on the job! Late last week, the 22-year Supreme Court Justice stunned everyone by commenting on same-sex “marriage” – just months before the Court is set to decide it. In an interview with Bloomberg, Ginsburg was surprisingly open about her feelings on the issue, crossing an ethical line that raises new questions about the justice’s impartiality.
For any judge – let alone one on the country’s highest court – to speak publicly about a pending case is an indiscretion that shocked people on both sides of the debate. Fox News’s Brit Hume tweeted out his displeasure: “Justice Ginsburg sounds off on an issue pending before the Supreme Court. Amazing impropriety.” The liberal justice, who had nothing but praise for President Obama, insists that America would come around to the Court’s redefinition of marriage if it did indeed sweep aside every state’s marriage amendment in a ruling this summer.
“The change in people’s attitudes on that issue has been enormous,” she said in an interview with Bloomberg. “In recent years, people have said, ‘This is the way I am.’ And others looked around, and we discovered it’s our next-door neighbor – we’re very fond of them… (T)he rest of us recognized that they are one of us.” It would not “take a large adjustment,” she claimed, for the country to accept the Court’s radical rewrite of nature’s laws. Before long, she believes, voters would understand having their laws trampled and their state sovereignty attacked.
Not only is Ginsburg mistaken, she’s amazingly indiscreet in flouting what is obviously a premeditated vote on an issue still hotly debated in every corner of America. She and fellow Justice Elana Kagan were already on thin ice where objectivity is concerned, having both presided over same-sex “weddings.” Now, with these latest revelations, the façade of fairness is crumbling.
The only answer, many believe, is for Justice Ginsburg to recuse herself from a trial she has already swayed. A growing chorus of Americans is calling for the justice to do the right thing and step aside. From Washington, D.C. to states like Alabama, voters demanded an end to the courts’ open activism. Brian Brown, head of the National Organization for Marriage, was one of several leaders asking that Ginsburg “comply with federal law and disqualify herself as she is required to do. If she refuses, we will ask Congress to act.”
The controversy seems to have snapped Ginsburg back into line –at least temporarily. When asked a couple of days ago about the case, she replied, “I don’t want to talk about what you describe as gay rights,” she said. “I don’t want to suggest how the court will decide that case, one way or another.” Unfortunately for her – and for America – the damage has already been done.
Obama’s Identity CrISIS
The White House may have a hard time saying the word “Christian” – but ISIS does not. When 21 Egyptian innocents were slaughtered in Libya because of their faith, the President’s inability to talk about the targeted attack on Christians said plenty. These were fathers, sons, and husbands just trying to support their families back in Egypt when they were brutally beheaded by Islamic terrorists. As ISIS’s own video makes very clear, these men were targeted because they were “People of the Cross” – a fact completely ignored by this White House.
While the rest of the world’s leaders speak out against the threat of Islamic extremists, this President continues to hide behind his politically correct rhetoric. While nearly 80% of Americans identify as Christians, the President seems determined not to link America to the Christian faith.
ISIS on the other hand, seems to understand the core of America better than the President. Although it was Egyptian Christians labors who were murdered, the video, “A Message Signed With Blood to the Nation of the Cross,” was clearly directed at the U.S. “Can you imagine the outcry,” Rev. Franklin Graham asked, “if 21 Muslims had been beheaded by Christians? Where is the universal condemnation by Muslim leaders around the world?”
Unfortunately, most Americans are no longer surprised by the Obama administration’s indifference toward Christian persecution – especially when its own domestic policies have been hostile to Christians here at home. “The storm is coming,” Franklin warned. And he’s right. These are not random acts of demonic brutality by ISIS – this is a growing wave of evil, which, left unchecked could be unlike anything the modern world has seen. ISIS leaders have said, “We will conquer your Rome, break your crosses, and enslave your women.”
This isn’t play-acting; these people have committed their lives to seeing this happen. We better take it seriously. And “we” includes the President of the United States.
As I said [Monday] night on Fox News’s “Kelly File,” the U.S. should take its cue from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has called for the Jews being targeted by Islamists in Europe to move to Israel. In addition to stepping up our military actions against ISIS, we should offer safe haven to persecuted Christians who are being forced to flee their homes and countries. Why not say to these families of faith that they’re welcome to come here and find refuge in America?
For more on the debate, scroll down for my interview with Megyn Kelly.
Best Bi? LGBT Banks on Oregon Gov
When Kate Brown takes over as Governor of Oregon, voters may not know anything about her record, but they will certainly know about her love life. The leading stories about the state’s new leader have nothing to do with Brown’s legislative accomplishments and everything to do with her other conquests. As a self-professed bisexual, most of the headlines surrounding Brown’s promotion are about the visibility she can bring to the “bi-community” – not the unity and progress she can bring to the state as a whole.
The soon-to-be Governor is a married stepmom of two, but openly talks about her attractions to both sexes. “To the extent that they’re out, they may well be more so the victims of scorn because they get it from both gay and straight people,” said one homosexual activist. “Gays want them to make a choice, and straights consider them gay, so in many ways they face increased amounts of stigma and discrimination.”
While few people would see the next governor as a victim, it’s a truly sad commentary on the devolution of our nation that leaders are not defined – not by their skill or expertise – but by their sexual experiences. As a society, we’ve become so obsessed with sex that we’re almost incapable of considering anything else. Of course, the question on every Oregonians’ minds should be: will Brown’s public policy be as fluid as her sexuality?
This is a publication of the Family Research Council. Mr. Perkins is president of FRC.