LOUISVILLE, Ky. (ABP) — Conservative Christian and political leaders declared war on judicial filibusters in the U.S. Senate during an April 24 rally at a Southern Baptist church in Kentucky.
Dubbed “Justice Sunday” by organizers, the 90-minute rally was subtitled “Stopping the Filibuster Against People of Faith.” It was hosted by Highview Baptist Church in Louisville and was co-sponsored by the Washington-based Family Research Council and the Colorado-based Focus on the Family organization.
James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, was among conservative evangelical and Catholic leaders who headlined the event. The nationwide simulcast also featured brief videotaped addresses by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and Chuck Colson, founder of Prison Fellowship Ministries.
The event sought to generate support for Frist's effort to drop a Senate rule — known as the “filibuster” — that has allowed Democrats to block 10 of President Bush's judicial nominees for federal judgeships. They have approved 205.
Under the rule, it takes 60 senators to cut off debate on legislation or nominations and move to a full vote. Republicans currently hold a 55-45 edge over Democrats (and one independent) in the Senate.
According to event organizer Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, the goal of the simulcast was “to reach as many people as possible and to engage values voters in the all-important issue of reining in our out-of-control courts and putting a halt to the use of filibusters against people of faith.” He repeatedly urged viewers to call the Senate switchboard or individual senators to encourage them to support the rule change.
But the event — and the rhetoric surrounding it — has drawn heavy criticism from other Christian leaders, who have denounced the notion that Democrats were filibustering some of Bush's nominees because of their faith commitments. Democrats say they oppose the judges for their extreme positions on topics ranging from abortion rights to property law.
Several dozen protestors, some of them in ministerial robes, stood near the road in front of the church as the rally crowd gathered. Earlier on April 24, several hundred moderate religious leaders attended a “Freedom and Faith” rally at Louisville's Central Presbyterian Church to counter the message of the rally at Highview Baptist.
In his speech, Dobson told the “Justice Sunday” rally: “I can't imagine anything more significant than what we're about to do. We're talking about the unconstitutional, I think, inappropriate use of the filibuster to prevent these honorable men and women from serving on the court.
“It's not right. It's wrong,” he declared. “I think this is one of the most significant issues we've ever faced as a nation, because the future of democracy and ordered liberty actually depends on the outcome of this struggle.
“Why?” he asked. “Because the issues we care about and the values that are important to us are now threatened by the court system — and especially the United States Supreme Court. There is a majority on the Supreme Court that is .. unaccountable and arrogant and imperious and determined to redesign the culture according to their own biases and values, and they're out of control.
“What's the connection with the filibuster?” he continued. “Listen carefully, folks. The ballot box is our only means of affecting the court. It's the only way that we can influence the make-up of the court.
“A minority of members of the Senate — the Democrats essentially and about six or eight very squishy Republicans — are determined to prevent that influence to be felt on the court,” Dobson warned. “Judicial tyranny to people of faith … has to stop.”
Urging supporters to call their senators, he concluded, “Tell them you care and that you will remember how they vote. It's all on the line, and it's time to stop the filibuster.”
The phone numbers of targeted senators flashed on the TV screen during the telecast. They included moderate Republicans who have either come out against discarding the filibuster or who have not yet publicly announced their position, as well as Democrats from conservative states — such as Arkansas Sens. Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor.
According to Frist, “Never in the history of the United States Senate had a judicial nominee with majority support been denied an up-or-down vote until two years ago.”
“In the last Congress, however, a minority of senators denied 10 of the president's judicial nominees an up-or-down vote…because they knew the nominations would be approved,” he said. “Now we're in a new Congress and these same senators again threaten to obstruct the vote on judges.
“Either confirm the nominees or reject them, but don't leave them hanging, don't leave our courts hanging,” Frist urged. “At least rejection is a vote. Give those nominees the courtesy and respect of a vote.”
Democrats — and some Republicans who oppose ending the filibuster, such as Arizona Sen. John McCain — have pointed out that Senate Republicans frequently denied up-or-down votes to former President Bill Clinton's nominees for the federal bench. While not filibustering Clinton's picks, many Republicans used other tactics to bottle them up in the Senate Judiciary Committee, even though the nominees likely would have won a vote by the full Senate.
And, in the 1960s, Republicans filibustered the elevation of late Supreme Court Justice Abe Fortas when President Lyndon Johnson nominated him for chief justice. Historians disagree over whether Fortas would have won approval from the full Senate. Fortas quit the court altogether over the rejection.
Frist, in his videotaped message, did not directly address criticism that the rhetoric used by the event's promoters was dishonest. But, he said, the firestorm over the rally illustrated the need for “more civility in political life” in the United States.
Other rally speakers were more direct. Colson told the audience he was “amused this week reading all of the static about this telecast that's taking place tonight when liberal senators like Sen. [Ted] Kennedy [D-Mass.] and Sen. [Harry] Reid [D-Nev.] were saying, 'What are people of faith doing getting involved in this process?' We shouldn't be involved because we're Christians? Of course, we should be involved. We ought to be the best of citizens.”
Many critics of the rally said they are opposed not to religious people becoming involved in the democratic process but to the close identification of religious groups with the agenda of one political party.
“It is presumptuous of them to think that they represent all Christians in America, even to say they represent all evangelical Christians,” said Pryor, the Arkansas senator, according to reports of a conference call he held with journalists April 22.
Pryor, who is pro-life and considers himself an evangelical Christian, said the rhetoric used by the rally organizers threatens “to make the followers of Jesus Christ just another interest group in this country.”
In a Sunday editorial, the state's largest newspaper blasted the senator for his comments.
“Mark Pryor wasn't so much challenging these folks' political views, but their daring to express them,” wrote the editors of the Little Rock-based Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in its April 24 issue. “It's unbecoming, you see, for church people to participate in the low rough-and-tumble of politics. As we understand his position, the senator is just trying to save these people from themselves and preserve religion's good name. Because faith shouldn't be sullied by political action.”
The paper said Pryor's opposition to religious support to end the filibuster is comparable to opposing the preacher-led civil-rights movement of the 1960s.
At the Louisville rally, other speakers included Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights; Harry Jackson, pastor of Hope Christian Church in College, Park, Md.; Al Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville; and Judge Charles Pickering of Mississippi.
The Senate's filibuster showdown could come soon. On April 21, the chamber's Judiciary Committee approved two nominees to federal appeals courts — Texas judge Priscilla Owen and California judge Janice Rogers Brown — whom Democrats filibustered during Bush's first term. Committee approval, on 10-8 party-line votes, clears the way for Frist to bring the nominations to the full Senate.
Frist could bring Owen's nomination to the full chamber after senators return from their spring vacation in mid-May.