Jeff Duncan: “regardless of how one feels about the Terri Schiavo case, and regardless of whether one is a liberal or a conservative…”

“regardless of how one feels about the Terri Schiavo case, and regardless of whether one is a liberal or a conservative, everyone should be concerned that the judiciary seems to be setting itself up as a type of superlegislature. Our Founding Fathers clearly did not mean for the judicial branch to be superior to or more powerful than the legislative and executive branches. A Member of the other body, former State supreme court justice, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Cornyn), made some very serious charges on the floor of the Senate Monday. He said, ``It causes a lot of people great distress to see judges use the authority they have been given to make raw political or ideological decisions.'' He added that ``sometimes the Supreme Court has taken on this role as a policymaker rather than an enforcer of political decisions made by elected representatives of the people.'' The reason people on both sides of the political spectrum should be concerned about this judicial power grab is that the political pendulum swings. Sometimes conservatives control legislative bodies; sometimes liberals do. Would liberals someday want conservative judges overruling their legislation? The Schiavo bill was very narrowly drawn to apply to just that case at the request or insistence of more liberal Members of both the House and Senate.”