WASHINGTON (ABP) — The federal judge who recently lost her husband and mother to a disgruntled claimant had strong words of caution for “some members of Congress” and televangelist Pat Robertson May 18.
Federal District Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow criticized what she considered dangerous rhetoric about federal judges during testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on increasing security for judges.
“I ask you to publicly and persistently repudiate gratuitous attacks on the judiciary — such as the recent statement of Pat Robertson on national television and, unfortunately, of some members of the Congress, albeit in more measured terms,” Lefkow told members of the panel.
She referred specifically to comments Robertson, the founder of the Christian Coalition, made on ABC's “This Week,” suggesting that some federal judges pose a threat to the nation's well-being that is “probably more serious than a few bearded terrorists who fly into buildings.” Robertson presumably was making reference to the Al Qaeda operatives who attacked the nation on Sept. 11, 2001.
“In this age of mass communication, harsh rhetoric is truly dangerous,” Lefkow told the senators. “It seems to me that even though we cannot prove a cause-and-effect relationship between rhetorical attacks on judges and violent acts of vengeance by a particular litigant, fostering disrespect for judges can only encourage those that are on the edge, or the fringe, to exact revenge on a judge who ruled against them.”
A man who lost a medical-malpractice lawsuit over which Lefkow presided shot her husband and mother to death in their Chicago home Feb. 28. He later committed suicide.
While Lefkow did not mention any members of Congress by name, the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call reported May 19 that she was referring, in part, to two Texas Republicans — Sen. John Cornyn and House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.
A simmering controversy over President Bush's judicial nominees, as well as recent decisions that many conservatives consider examples of “judicial activism,” have added fuel to the fiery rhetoric over the judiciary. It reached a fever pitch shortly after the March 31 death of Terri Schiavo, the brain-damaged Florida woman whose feeding tube a state judge ordered removed.
In a statement following Schiavo's death, DeLay lambasted the court decisions that enabled it and said, “the time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior.” He also decried what he believed was “an arrogant, out-of-control, unaccountable judiciary that thumbed their noses at Congress and the president” in the Schiavo matter.
Then Cornyn, in an April 4 Senate floor speech, noted recent acts of violence against judges and said, “I wonder whether there may be some connection between the perception in some quarters on some occasions where judges are making political decisions, yet are unaccountable to the public. Yet it builds and builds to the point where some people engage in violence — certainly without any justification, but that is a concern I have that I wanted to share.”
After heavy criticism from Democrats and others, Cornyn said he regretted that his “remarks have been taken out of context to create the wrong impression about my position, and possibly be construed to contribute to the problem rather than to a solution.”
According to Roll Call, a DeLay spokesman said the senator “has never threatened judges.” He went on to say the majority leader “has made it clear he believes in an independent judiciary, and the Constitution states the legislative branch has oversight responsibilities of the judiciary as well as the executive branch.”