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TO A FRIEND
Cheers For An Independent Judge
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
By Phyllis Schlafly
Marketing policy of the book publishing industry now calls for a catchy title followed by an explanatory subtitle. The Tyranny of Tolerance
was published this month with the subtitle: "A Sitting Judge Breaks the Code of Silence to Expose the Liberal Judicial Assault."
This sitting state court judge, Robert H. Dierker Jr., speaks from first-hand experience with some of the cases he discusses. Before becoming a judge 20 years ago, he represented the City of St. Louis in the landmark case in which activist federal judges levied a billion dollars of new taxes on Missouri citizens, a legislative power now unconstitutionally grabbed by state courts, too.
After he became a judge, Missouri's ban on partial-birth abortion came into his court in 2000. It became his duty to witness that gruesome procedure, and he may be the only judge who ever saw one.
The liberals usually claim they want an "independent" judiciary, unbridled free speech, and tolerance for all points of view. Now they are trying to kill the messenger because they can't counter Judge Dierker's copiously documented arguments. Judge Dierker asserts that "illiberal liberals are at the root of the constitutional crisis that we face today." In a nutshell, they act as though "History and tradition count for nothing; the language of the Constitution itself counts for little; the only criterion is whether a ruling will advance the liberal agenda."
The illiberal liberals are angry that this sitting judge has exposed their game plan to use the courts to override self-government. The radical feminists are more than angry; they are trying to get Judge Dierker censured and/or fired, and have even suggested he be subjected to a "judges' book review" to prevent judges from "offending the bench."
The feminists' tantrums remind us of MIT Professor Nancy Hopkins, who said she wanted to "throw up" after hearing Harvard President Larry Summers utter words heretical to feminist ideology. Summers tried to appease them by repeatedly apologizing and offering millions of dollars to finance feminist academic goals, but the merciless feminists forced him to leave Harvard anyway.
I'm betting that Judge Dierker will not be intimidated by the radical feminists' histrionics because he has the great quality of "Manliness," so well described in Harvard Professor Harvey Mansfield's recent book of that name. Mansfield defines manliness as "confidence in the face of risk" and assertiveness in causes beyond themselves.
Judge Dierker, indeed, has taken on a cause beyond himself even though he recognizes it is "the third rail" of politics. This battle desperately needs to be fought by a sitting judge who can report on the feminists' judicial assault on the U.S. Constitution, on the separation of powers, and on the equal protection clause, which they pervert to function like George Orwell's "Animal Farm" where "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others."
Professor Mansfield describes the philosophical background of what he calls feminist "nihilism," i.e., an attack on men, morality, marriage, masculinity, motherhood, and human nature. Judge Dierker likewise understands that the radical feminist agenda "is based on hatred for men" and disdain for what the feminists repeatedly deride as the Ozzie and Harriet traditional family lifestyle.
In criticizing what he calls "The Cloud Cuckooland of Radical Feminism," Judge Dierker describes how the feminists use sexual harassment litigation to punish men. Cooperative courts now allow sexual harassment litigation based on words alone, without evidence of objective harm to the woman or job detriment.
Sexual harassment claims have become the weapon by which the feminists vent their malice toward men. The "illiberal liberals and the feminists don't want equality; they want to make some people more equal than others. And they've made it happen through their dominance of the courts."
Judge Dierker accurately points out the mischief of the gender commissions that demand changes in the way courts treat women, quotas in judicial appointments, and special training to re-educate judges and lawyers to toe the feminist line, especially in cases involving domestic violence. This feminist indoctrination encourages prosecutors to "pursue rape cases to trial, regardless of the merits of the case" (like the prosecutor of the Duke lacrosse players?), and never to criticize feminist jurisprudence.
Why hasn't Congress used its constitutional power to limit the jurisdiction of federal judges? Maybe because the "tyranny of tolerance" has so intimidated congressmen that they lack the manliness to risk the tantrums of the illiberals and the feminists.
Phyllis Schlafly has been a national leader of the conservative movement since the publication of her best-selling 1964 book, A Choice Not An Echo. She has been a leader of the pro-family movement since 1972, when she started her national volunteer organization now called Eagle Forum. In a ten-year battle, Mrs. Schlafly led the pro-family movement to victory over the principal legislative goal of the radical feminists, called the Equal Rights Amendment. An articulate and successful opponent of the radical feminist movement, she appears in debate on college campuses more frequently than any other conservative. She was named one of the 100 most important women of the 20th century by the Ladies’ Home Journal.
Mrs. Schlafly’s monthly newsletter called The Phyllis Schlafly Report is now in its 42nd year. Her syndicated column appears in 100 newspapers, her radio commentaries are heard daily on 500 stations, and her radio talk show on education called “Eagle Forum Live” is heard weekly on 75 stations. Both can be heard on the internet.
She is the author or editor of 20 books on subjects as varied as family and feminism (The Power of the Positive Woman and Feminist Fantasies), nuclear strategy (Strike From Space and Kissinger on the Couch), education (Child Abuse in the Classroom), child care (Who Will Rock the Cradle?), and phonics (First Reader and Turbo Reader). Her most recent book: The Supremacists: The Tyranny of Judges and How to Stop It.
Mrs. Schlafly is a lawyer and served as a member of the Commission on the Bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution, 1985-1991, appointed by President Reagan. She has testified before more than 50 Congressional and State Legislative committees on constitutional, national defense, and family issues.
Mrs. Schlafly is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Washington University, received her J.D. from Washington University Law School, and received her Master's in Political Science from Harvard University.
Phyllis Schlafly is America’s best-known advocate of the dignity and honor that we as a society owe to the role of fulltime homemaker. The mother of six children, she was the 1992 Illinois Mother of the Year.
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