Daily Kos: BREAKING: Sandra Day O'Connor Speaks out and unbelievably says

Daily Kos: BREAKING: Sandra Day O'Connor Speaks out and unbelievably says

BREAKING: Sandra Day O'Connor Speaks out and unbelievably says
by philinmaine
Fri Mar 10, 2006 at 06:25:12 AM PDT

I don't have all the story but Justice O'Connor has BLASTED the Republicans for their partisan attacks on the courts. She stated (paraphrase) that partisan attacks on the courts for political purposes must stop. She included references to cutting a court's budget, intimidation, and poisioning the public against the judicial system. Wow! Then she said something off the charts...

* philinmaine's diary :: ::
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She closed by saying (paraphrase) that it takes a long time to become a dictatorship but better to stop the slide at the beginning than the end. That's Right..Sandra Day O'Connor used the word dictatorship. Not some 'nutty blogger' not some 'left wing lezzy' but the most venerated, praised, widely respected, Justice O'Connor.

The audio was on NPR..I suppose the lead could be 'NPR finds its balls' cause I've been scouring the net and can't find the speech but the audio will be on the net at 10AM

http://www.npr.org/...

I don't care if this diary gets recommended or not (I had a good diary yesterday that got pretty much ignored) but I hope this gets picked up. Her statements were right on the mark, Molly Ivins could not have said it better. Thank you Justice O'Connor, from the bottom of my heart I salute your guts and courage. You told it as it is except you may have left out that we're well into the slide down the slippery slope (or maybe you inferred). UPDATE: I've been informed the audio is now live. Listen here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5255712 I followed the comments and yes, she was wrong in 2000 but she's right now. Would that it was then but listen to the now. UPDATE: Thanks to Karen for the following: I've transcribed the NPR audio ...and here are excerpts. Reporting is Nina Totenberg, NPR legal affairs correspondent, who attended the speech. ...O'Connor said attacks on the judiciary by some Republican leaders pose a direct threat to our constitutional freedoms... Our effectiveness," she said, "is premised on the notion that we won't be subject to retaliation for our judicial acts." The nation's founders wrote repeatedly, she said, that without an independent judiciary to protect individual rights from the other branches of government, those rights and privileges would amount to nothing. And then she took aim at former GOP House leader Tom Delay. She didn't name him, but she quoted his attacks on the courts at a meeting of the conservative Christian group Justice Sunday last year, when Delay took out after the courts for rulings on abortion, prayer and the Terri Shiavo case... Then she nailed Cornyn: It gets worse, she said, noting that death threats against judges are increasing. It doesn't help, she said, when a high-profile senator suggests that there may be a connection between violence against judges and decisions that the senator disagrees with. Re recent suggestions for "so-called" judicial reforms, judicial budget cuts, etc., -- "I," said O'Connor, "am against judicial reforms driven by nakedly partisan reasoning." ..."We must be ever vigilant against those who would strong-arm the judiciary into adopting their preferred policies. It takes a lot of degeneration before a country falls into dictatorship," she said, "but we should avoid these ends by avoiding these beginnings." The truth doesn't hurt unless it should. -Church marquee by Karen Wehrstein on Fri Mar 10, 2006 at 07:21:17 AM PDT