Lamar Smith, then:
Congressman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) and Congressman Steve Chabot (R-Ohio) today announced the formation of the “House Working Group On Judicial Accountability.†Rep. Smith and Rep. Chabot serve as co-chairmen of the Group.
“This Working Group seeks to accomplish several goals. First, we want to educate Members and the public about judicial abuse. Second, we will try to prevent judicial abuse and third, we will support the nomination process for judges who will not substitute their own policy views for the law,†said Rep. Smith.
“The fact remains that the judiciary is a co-equal branch of the federal government. They are subject to checks and balances. Congress is right to evaluate them when they behave like un-elected super-legislators,†added Smith.
Emphasis mine. And again, Lamar Smith, then:
Three weeks ago, religious conservatives angry about rulings that have limited public displays of religion assembled in Washington for a conference titled, “Confronting the Judicial War on Faith.”
San Antonio’s Republican Rep. Lamar Smith addressed an audience there in place of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, who was attending the Pope John Paul II’s funeral.
“While judicial activism has existed from the founding of our nation, it seems to have reached a crisis,” Smith told the audience. “Judges routinely overrule the will of the people, invent new ‘rights’ and ignore traditional morality.”
Finally, Lamar Smith, now.
The most pointed opposition to the Judiciary bill came from Texas Republican Lamar Smith, who said he would prefer “to leave these decisions to the courts to work out on a case-by-case basis under the antitrust law.”
The existing bill is far too regulatory and could “put a straitjacket on this important sector of the economy,” Smith warned.
That was on the subject of Net Neutrality, where Smith was one of 13 Republicans to vote against the Sensenbrenner-Conyers bill last week. Isn’t it amazing how much wiser and more statesmanlike judges became for Smith after he lost a legislative battle and needed a backup plan to stop something he didn’t like? A lesser man than he would surely have gotten whiplash from such a turnaround.
Link via the Texas 21 blog. If you want a better choice for CD21, you know where to find it.