Activist judge never around
when you need one
By Tom Henderson Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Don't you hate these activist judges who manufacture "rights" out of thin air?
Nothing in the Constitution gives people the right to have homosexual sex or abortions, but you know liberals. They twisted the Fourth Amendment to conclude people have a right to privacy.
Judges ought to stick to the Constitution as written.
Or so says James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family and self-appointed guardian of all that's good and wholesome. "These individual judges and courts justify such decisions even when the Constitution is silent on the issues at hand," says Dobson.
The Constitution is silent, for example, on the subject of home schooling. Absolutely mum. Any judge who says parents have a constitutional right to home school their children is legislating from the bench.
That's horrible, that's egregious, that's ... well, different, says Dobson.
He actually wants that particular right read into the Constitution. Apparently, three judges sitting on a California appeals court aren't activist enough for Dobson's taste. They ruled parents have no constitutional right to home school their children.
"The court is guilty of an imperious assault on the rights of parents," fumes Dobson. "How dare these judges have the audacity to label tens of thousands of parents as criminals?"
How dare they? Isn't Dobson always saying judges need to take the law as is? The court didn't say home schooling is evil. It said home schooling is not a right guaranteed by the Constitution.
The ruling came after allegations of abuse were leveled at a particular father. If children are being abused rather than educated, the parents' rights obviously end where the children's rights begin. The California case grew complicated because the court also ruled that parents without teaching credentials cannot home school their children.
To be a certified teacher, a parent would have to have a four-year degree and pass a number of exams. Requiring home school parents to be certified obviously puts an enormous burden on these families. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger already vows to see the law changed.
Dobson, however, prefers shouting at the wind.
"We will team with key allies and use every means at our disposal to make sure that not just every Californian, but every American, is aware of this miscarriage of justice," Dobson says.
Go ahead. Just quit whining about activist judges. They apparently come in handy when they agree with you. - T.H.
Originally published by the Lewiston Tribune
