Those wacky 9th circuit court judges!

Just another case to be turned over on appeal.
Brian Day | 04.26.06 - 12:22 pm | #

The 9th Circuit is the most dangerous court system in this nation.

Not only is it clearly biased, it ignores precedence and rulings in other cases to set forth a path that doesn't honor or uphold Constitutional rights for groups (Christians, for example) that don't adhere to the court's ideologies.
Amy P. | Homepage | 04.26.06 - 12:58 pm | #

I'm telling you guys, we need to give California back to the Mexicans. It kills three birds with one stone: it creates a homeland for illegal immigrants, it gets rid of California wacky government, *and* it will break up the Ninth Circuit. Not to mention it will settle Mexico's long-standing grudge against us for stealing the Southwest (assuming we make the settlement of the grudge a precondition to handing it back). Win-win-win-win.
Publius | Homepage | 04.26.06 - 2:00 pm | #

Colleges take stats on the racial and sexual makeup of their faculty, right? Do they collect stats for religion, too?

It'd be nice to have statistics for student bomb-throwers to recite before diversity comittees.
Kevin Jones | Homepage | 04.26.06 - 2:35 pm | #

While this is 100% certain to be overturned, like basically 100% of the 9th Circuit's other decisions, let this be a warning. The 9th Circuit provides us a forecast of what life will be like if the Kos/DU/Dean contingent starts to win more elections.

Do you think that a party made up entirely of Barbara Boxer, Kucinich, or Dean types, should they come to power, would be content to uphold the free-exercise clause? NOT make uncensored preaching a hate crime? Then you're a damn fool.

Mark, good job on keeping us up on these things. You are easily the most balanced orthodox Catholic blogger I read. You're not afraid to tell it like it is, to either party. I mean this most sincerely.
Chris S. | 04.26.06 - 2:40 pm | #

I agree with Publius we should give California to Mexico. One less freaky commie blue state. OTOH what if a year later the Mexicans what to give Her back? Who would blame them?
BenYachov(Jim Scott 4th) | 04.26.06 - 3:17 pm | #

OTOH what if a year later the Mexicans what to give Her back?

Simple: when we give them California, we put up a sign saying: "All sales are final."
Publius | Homepage | 04.26.06 - 3:28 pm | #

Doesn't matter whether the U.S. or Mexico has California. One day, the "big one" is going to come, and the Pacific Ocean will reclaim her.

And Chris S. is right. Who gets to pick the judges DOES matter. At this point, that is just about the ONLY reason I still vote for the Republicans. The 9th Circuit is a microcosm of what the entire federal judiciary would look like if Howard Dean's party had its way.
Jay Anderson | Homepage | 04.26.06 - 3:33 pm | #

Win-win-win-win.

A fourth benefit you forgot to mention: Hollywood would then become a de jure foreign country, not just a de facto one.
Sean P. Dailey | Homepage | 04.26.06 - 4:23 pm | #

Sean,

And Senators Feinstein and Boxer as well as Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger would cease to be Americans overnight. One could go on listing the benefits of California's secession/expulsion from the Union forever.
Publius | Homepage | 04.26.06 - 4:43 pm | #

Publius, you're making my mouth water.

Except, what would we do with all the illegal aliens trying to cross over into Nevada, Arizona and Oregon? All the signs would have to be in English and Valleyspeak.
Sean P. Dailey | Homepage | 04.26.06 - 5:43 pm | #

This hasn't even gotten to the 9th Circuit yet; it's just a district court ruling.

Incidentally, Judge White was nominated by President George W. Bush.
sj | 04.26.06 - 7:08 pm | #

Why do Christians at Hastings have to found a club anyway? Can't they just get together informally and do whatever they do? Is the purpose of organizing to get funding from the University, really from the tax payer? The funder gets to call the shots. Christians including Catholics seem to have such a hard time with this simple reality.
caroline | 04.26.06 - 9:30 pm | #

Some of the commentary above seems especially asinine. And as sj notes, this case hasn't even reached the 9th Circuit yet.

Yes, anyone can have an informal club at Hastings. According to the district court judge's opinion, the following are the benefits you would get by being a registered student organization:

a) use of the school's name and logo,
b) use of certain bulletin boards in the classroom building,
c) eligibility for a law school e-mail account for the organization,
d) eligibility to send out mass emails through the school's student government,
e) eligibility for a student organization account with the school's fiscal services department,
f) eligibility to apply for student activity fee funding,
g) eligibility to apply for limited travel funds,
h) ability to place announcements in school's weekly bulletin (this is not the student newspaper),
i) eligibility to apply for permission to use limited office space,
j) eligibility to use a student organization voice-mailbox for telephone messages,
k) listing on the school's website and in school's publications,
l) participation in annual student organization fair, and
m) use of student information center to distribute materials to law school community.

According to the opinion, another benefit for registered student organizations is the use of the law school's rooms and audio-visual equipment. The law school did provide this benefit to the CLS group.

Non-registered student organizations have access to other bulletin boards and chalk boards at the school to make announcements.
Bill Logan | 04.26.06 - 10:53 pm | #

If you'd like to read the judge's actual opinion, you can find it at this link.
Bill Logan | 04.26.06 - 11:07 pm | #

"Incidentally, Judge White was nominated by President George W. Bush."


You do realize that in order to avoid a nominee getting a dreaded "blue slip" that the President has to pick a nominee that is acceptable to BOTH of California's senators:

http://www.opinionjournal.com/co...ot/? id=95000445

Blue Slip
How Feinstein is repaying Bush on judges.

BY PAUL A. GIGOT
Wednesday, May 9, 2001 12:01 a.m. EDT

When President Bush announces his first judicial nominees today, the news will be who isn't standing behind him.

My sources said yesterday his choices won't include three highly qualified conservatives, Rep. Chris Cox and Judge Carolyn Kuhl of California and Maryland attorney Peter Keisler.

As late as last week, Mr. Bush had planned to name all three to prestigious circuit-court judgeships. But his advisers pulled back their names because of opposition from Democratic senators in their home states. The trio may make a comeback at some later date, but their withdrawal exposes the illusion of Beltway "bipartisanship." Senate Democrats are turning judicial selection into a brass-knuckled partisan street fight.

***
When word leaked that Mr. Bush was considering Mr. Cox for a Ninth Circuit seat, California's liberal Sen. Barbara Boxer immediately promised a "blue slip." That's what senators call a blackball, intended to block even a hearing and vote. It's usually saved for only the most egregious nominees. Of course no one expects a grace note from Ms. Boxer, liberalism's Marge Schott.

More remarkable is the behavior of California's other Senate Democrat, Dianne Feinstein. She's long posed as her state's more civilized senator, the one you can talk to. But suddenly she's acting like Ms. Boxer's acolyte, hinting that she may join her sister's blue slip on Mr. Cox. Two home-state blue slips have been automatically disqualifying under Senate tradition, while one has not.

***
Ms. Feinstein's hostility is all the more amazing considering how far Mr. Bush has gone to appease her on judges. White House Counsel Al Gonzales recently agreed to establish four bipartisan commissions to select judges for California's district courts, the level just below the Ninth Circuit. Mr. Bush will pick three members on each commission, while she and Ms. Boxer name the other three. Only candidates with four votes could be nominated, giving the senators de facto veto power over Mr. Bush's choices.

Perhaps that would explain the President's poor choice in nominating Judge White. It certainly reinforces the basic premise that the Democrats would have the entire federal judiciary mirror what goes on in the federal district courts of California and in the 9th Circuit.
Jay Anderson | Homepage | 04.26.06 - 11:43 pm | #

And I'm not excusing Bush for agreeing to such an idiotic deal. The President has authority to nominate - the Senate's advise and consent role comes AFTER the nomination.

Bush gave away the farm by agreeing to this pathetic dilution of his power.
Jay Anderson | Homepage | 04.26.06 - 11:58 pm | #

"The funder gets to call the shots. Christians including Catholics seem to have such a hard time with this simple reality."

It'd be easier to deal with if the secularists didn't pretend to be so disinterested, accommodating, and neutral. But since they do, we end up having to go through all sorts of legal contortions rather than simply fight to reclaim America as a non-confessional but Christian nation. Despite its own dangers, this is the only way to restore sanity to the justice system.
Kevin Jones | Homepage | 04.27.06 - 2:08 am | #

Reversal is not sufficient.

The only way out of this is to start impeaching judges for lunacy.
Mary | 04.27.06 - 9:55 pm | #

Is the purpose of organizing to get funding from the University, really from the tax payer?

No, the purpose is to get funding from the Student Activity Fees. In these cases, the funder doesn't really get to call the shots, because the funder is each individual student. Each student in this Christian club has paid probably a minimum of $50 at the beginning of the year for "student activities." Why should they be forced to accept their money going to, say, GLBT groups? Should they, as the "funder," be able to make decisions on behalf of those groups? The obvious solution is to stop collecting student activity fees; if the clubs are that important to the students, then they can pay annual dues. But this is one of those things that will be debated from here to eternity, but never come close to happening.
Stephen | Homepage | 05.08.06 - 9:20 pm | #