April 26, 2005

BY JESSE JACKSON

Will America retain an independent judiciary, capable of defending the rights of the unpopular few against the many? Will it remain a country where the freedom to practice religion is protected by law -- a law enforced by an independent judiciary? Will it sustain a separation of church and state that ensures that no one church's doctrine will be imposed on all, and that in return, all faiths can thrive, independent of state pressure, free to embrace the tenets of their doctrine?

These questions are no longer academic. The right-wing assault on the courts is no longer about partisan politics. It is about the survival of an independent judiciary itself. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist joined this weekend with ideological zealots to denounce opposition to right-wing activist judges as an "attack on people of faith."

We are witnessing the worst attack on an independent judiciary since George Wallace and others sparked a campaign to "impeach Earl Warren" for ruling that segregation violated the Constitution.

Needless to say, these arrogant zealots do not admit their purpose. We seek only to curb "activist judges," they say. But when conservative Republican jurists deferred to the state courts in the Terri Schiavo case, they threatened impeachment, if not violence against them.

We want an end to "litmus tests" in judicial appointments, they say. But the judges at issue are vetted by the extremist Federalist Society to be committed opponents not only of Roe vs. Wade, which established women's right to privacy and choice, but of the entire New Deal jurisprudence that empowered Congress to regulate corporations.

The lies are compounded by the arrogance of their claim to be vessels of God's will. Frist and his allies do not denounce Democrats for having a different sense of where the courts ought to be going. They denounce Democrats as "opposing people of faith." They suggest that to oppose them is to oppose God.

This is dangerous blasphemy. No senator is heaven's gatekeeper for the faithful. None can shovel coal in hell's fire for those he labels as nonbelievers. In a diverse democracy, invoking one version of distorted religion as God's will is as dangerous as using race as a litmus test for oppression. Over the years, a politicized culture and religion have justified slavery, segregation, anti-Semitism, racial and religious stereotypes, and gender inequality as God's will.

Demanding courts enforce one set of religious beliefs and claiming any who dare oppose that are against "faith" is bad theology and bad democracy. This is why the founding fathers, seeking to protect America's freedoms, made the establishment of any one church unconstitutional. Our founding fathers warned about the horrible toll in lives and treasure caused by religious wars. They sought to free the practice of one's faith from the powers of the state. Frist and House Majority Leader Tom DeLay want to break down that very barrier.

America's Constitution is the oldest in the world. Our commitment to law and liberty, to democracy and to the rights of minorities provides hope across the globe. But now America must decide if we are committed to those values or ready to abandon them to allow for the reign of the self-righteous who claim to speak for God. They should tremble before a just God who has taught us to humble ourselves, to speak his name, not speak in his name.

It is vital that people of all faiths rise up and challenge these politicians who seem without shame. In the Senate, Republicans seem ready to vote en masse to outlaw the filibuster and to erase any need to consider the opinions of those senators who actually represent a majority of the American people. Every citizen should ask his or her senators where they stand. Do they stand with DeLay or with democracy? With Frist or with freedom? With those who claim God is on their side or with those who seek to be on God's side? The stakes are not a few justices or even a Supreme Court appointment. At stake is whether America will descend into the religious wars that our founding fathers wanted us against.