John Cornyn: “the American people know judicial activism when they see it. They know a controversial ruling that is totally out of…”

“the American people know judicial activism when they see it. They know a controversial ruling that is totally out of step with a judge's accepted role in our form of government when they see it, whether it be the redefinition of marriage, the expulsion of the Pledge of Allegiance from our classrooms and other expressions of faith from the public square, the elimination of the three-strikes-and-you're-out law, and other penalties for convicted criminals, or the forced removal of military recruiters from college campuses. Justice Owen's rulings come nowhere near those examples of judicial activism that we would all recognize clearly and plainly. There is a world of difference between struggling to interpret the ambiguous expressions of a statute and refusing to obey a legislature's directives altogether, or substituting one's personal views or agenda for the words of a statute. It is clear, then, that Justice Owen's record deserves the broad and bipartisan support that she has gotten, and it is equally clear that her opposition only comes from a narrow band on the far-left fringes of the political spectrum. So if the Senate were simply to follow more than 200 years of consistent Senate and constitutional tradition, dating back to our Founders, there would be no question about her being confirmed; she would be.…”