From the Chicago Tribune

Rally targets `arrogant' judiciary
Conservative Christians denounce power of nation's judges during
`Justice Sunday II' event
From Tribune news services
Published August 15, 2005

NASHVILLE -- A group of conservative Christian speakers took aim
Sunday at the power and decisions of the nation's judges, and
especially the Supreme Court, using a "Justice Sunday II" telecast to
denounce what House Majority Leader Tom DeLay called "judicial
autocracy."
America's judicial system is "unelected, unaccountable and arrogant,"
Focus on the Family founder James Dobson told the thousands of people
who packed a Nashville church for the televised rally.
The goal of the rally was to educate evangelical Christians about the
U.S. Supreme Court and get them talking to friends and elected
officials about what they want from their justices, said organizer
Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council.
Many of the speeches targeted the Supreme Court's power and what the
writers of the Constitution intended for the justices to do.
The president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights,
William Donohue, suggested a constitutional amendment to say that
"unless a judicial vote is unanimous, you cannot overturn a law
created by Congress."
The court is trying to "take the hearts and souls of our culture," he said.
Dobson evoked the framers of the Constitution, saying: "These
activist, unelected judges believe they know better than the American
people about the direction the country should go. The framers of our
great nation did not intend for the courts to have absolute and final
power over us."
Protesters also were vocal Sunday, both outside Two Rivers Baptist
Church where the rally was held and across town, where a group of
religious leaders held a separate event.
"This is so Americans can see the `Justice Sunday' sponsors and Tom
DeLay don't have any exclusive hold on religion," said Glenn Smith, an
organizer of the Community of Faith and Unity Gathering.
The first "Justice Sunday" event, held in April at a church in
Louisville, was aimed at stopping a potential filibuster of several
nominees for the federal bench.
A speaker at that event, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.),
had threatened to try to change Senate rules to prevent certain
filibusters if Democrats persisted.
Frist, a surgeon, wasn't invited to address "Justice Sunday II"
because he angered the events' organizers by voicing his support for
expanded human embryonic stem cell research.
Although some rally organizers once talked about using it to support
Supreme Court nominee John Roberts Jr., most speakers at Two Rivers
mentioned him only in passing.
The shift in the focus of the telecast indicates the difficulties for
both right and left in discerning Roberts' legal views from his
limited judicial record.
Perkins summed up his more cautious support for President Bush's
choice in an e-mail message to supporters: "Trust but verify." In an
e-mail message on Friday about the telecast, Perkins clarified that
the event's focus would be bigger than Roberts. "This will be no pep
rally for his confirmation," he said.
DeLay questioned the Supreme Court's power to strike down federal laws
if it deemed them unconstitutional.
The Constitution assigned Congress the power to make laws, DeLay said,
but "this fact ... has been forgotten in recent decades by too many
members of the American judiciary, including, most notably, the United
States Supreme Court itself."
As evidence, he and others cited Supreme Court decisions about
abortion and religion in public life. "That's not judicial
independence," DeLay said. "That's judicial supremacy, judicial
autocracy."
But after the disclosure of memorandums Roberts wrote for the Reagan
administration arguing that the Constitution could allow Congress to
remove areas like abortion or school prayer from the jurisdiction of
the Supreme Court, advocates close to the White House pointed
reporters to other memorandums Roberts later wrote suggesting he did
not consider such proposals wise policy.
Speaking at the "Justice Sunday II" telecast, however, Phyllis
Schlafly, the veteran Christian conservative organizer, argued for
just such a proposal, which critics call "court stripping."
- - -
About Justice Sunday II
WHAT: A rally featuring conservative Christian speakers telecast from Nashville.
THEME: "How activist judges subvert the family, undermine religious
freedom and threaten our nation's future."
AUDIENCE: Rally was telecast on cable's Trinity Broadcasting Network,
as well as by local radio and TV stations.
WHO SPOKE: Scheduled speakers, some by video feed, included House
Majority Leader Tom DeLay, James Dobson of Focus on the Family, Chuck
Colson of Prison Fellowship Ministries and Tony Perkins of the Family
Research Council.
POINT: "All wisdom does not reside in nine persons in black robes. The
Constitution is clear on the point that the power to make laws is
vested on Congress."--DeLay
COUNTERPOINT: "Those people meeting with Tom DeLay, Chuck Colson and
Jim Dobson think they own the Bible and that God speaks only to
them."--Rita Brock, founder of Faith Voices for the Common Good,
speaking at a Christian counter-rally in Nashville.