O’Connor is out: Janice Rogers Brown for the Supreme Court
by: Steve Yuhas
It took years, but former California Supreme Court Justice Janice Rogers Brown was confirmed to the D.C. Court of Appeals by a vote of 56-43 in the United States Senate less than one month ago. Her appointment to that Court, often called a “stepping stone” to the Supreme Court, was a struggle because Democrats blocked her and other conservative nominees because they did not think the way people in their class (women, race, etc.) are supposed to think. Finally, though, the Senate relented and found her qualified to sit on the second most powerful court in the land. Having found her qualified for that position and knowing that if she is qualified to be a jurist there she is more than qualified to replace O’Connor, President Bush should nominate her.
The fact that Judge Brown has sat on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals for only a month is not an issue because her credentials from the California Supreme Court put to shame the credentials of the woman she would replace. When Sandra Day O’Connor was appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court by Ronald Reagan in 1981 she was an Arizona Court of Appeals judge with only 18 months of experience, although she ran for a regular judgeship in 1974 and served until 1979; she was hardly a judicial maverick. She never sat on the Arizona Supreme Court and was never the final authority on anything, but she was confirmed and lauded by women as a role model.
Justice O’Connor did not have much experience on the state courts of Arizona and had no federal experience at all when she appointed to highest court in the land; contrast that against the judicial experience of Judge Brown. In 1994 Brown was appointed to the California Court of Appeals and in 1996 she was elevated to Associate Justice on the California Supreme Court. Her judicial and legal career is distinguished and her personal journey from the segregated south to a seat on the second most influential court in the nation is impressive and cannot be lost on the President.
Without being too sentimental it is not easy to ignore the fact that Judge Brown escaped segregation and put herself through college and law school. Five years before the Supreme Court struck down the idea of separate but equal, Brown was born in Greenville, Alabama (1949) and eventually became a single mother after her husband died of cancer leaving her with a son and a desire to finish college and law school as a single mother. She is said to have begun life as a liberal, but realized that being conservative was an important factor in freedom and liberty and as years went by she adopted a more conservative point of view.
Her story is inspirational, but it is her intellect, judicial authority and ability should that should make her President Bush’s nominee to the vacancy created by O’Connor’s departure.
To know why Judge Brown should be elevated to the Supreme Court one need only look to those groups that opposed her confirmation to the D.C. Court of Appeals: the AFL-CIO (labor unions hate people who believe people should work for a living and not have two hour lunches), Americans for Democratic Action, Americans United for Separation of Church and State (have to remove all the crosses on all the seals and before long in military cemeteries), the Congressional Black Caucus (they only like liberal blacks), Endangered Species Coalition (did Judge Brown want any species to become endangered? I don’t remember), the Feminist Majority, NAACP (see Congressional Black Caucus), National Urban League (see NAACP), Planned Parenthood Federation of America (yes to killing babies, no to black women on courts), Union for Reform Judaism (why confirm a black when you can eat all the pork you want?), and Amigos Bravos (any group that calls themselves friends of rivers should be ruled out as a serious opponents to a judicial nominee) – just to name a few.
Knowing who opposes a person is likely to give an idea about the reasons they do. Judge Brown was opposed to the D.C. Court of Appeals for two years because she doesn’t think the way a black woman is supposed to think. She doesn’t believe that all property and money belongs to government first and to the people who own it or earn it second and she doesn’t believe that it is a federal issue that a woman be permitted to kill her child in the womb lest it be left to be put up for adoption or the ruling left up to the various states. In short – Judge Brown is not considered federal or Supreme Court material for the left because she believes in the United States Constitution and individual rights instead of group rights and special interests.
Liberals and Democrats hate that.
Judge Brown was confirmed by more than a majority of the Senate to sit on the D.C. Circuit and it is logical that she would be confirmed to the Supreme Court. What a wonderful testament to not only her history as a woman born into the segregated south before black kids could go to school with white ones or her father could eat in the same restaurant as I could, but a testament to President Bush’s promise that if he was re-elected he would appoint jurists who interpret the Constitution and not simply find things in it or look to international law in order to impose their views on the rest of us.
Janice Rogers Brown is more than likely on the short list to replace O’Connor on the Supreme Court and she should be the announced replacement.
I cannot wait for the day when two black conservatives sit on the Supreme Court interpreting the Constitution as it was meant to be interpreted and not legislating from it.
O’Connor’s departure is a departure of a swing vote on the highest court in the nation and it could very well lead to a return to the time when the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness was not just on a quilt in gift shops in Washington, D.C., but something real and fundamental to how cases are ultimately decided. The next to leave will more than likely be the ailing Chief Justice and if we could rid ourselves of the dastardly Associate Justice John Paul Stevens (who is 85) – the Court would be able to return America to what our founders intended: a nation of states with limited federal interference and reverence to states’ rights.
Judge Brown is a good place to start.
Steve Yuhas is a columnist and radio talk show host on KOGO AM 600 out of San Diego. He may be reached at steve@steveyuhas.com or www.steveyuhas.com