(This update courtesy of the Media Research Center.)
Saturday's Los Angeles Times featured a puff piece on the two judges who
ruled the Pledge of Allegiance's “under God” portion to be
unconstitutional and a third federal judge in California who ruled
that the government is not giving due process to groups it has
classified as terrorist.
The headline over the June 29 story: “3 Federal Judges in
California Swim Against a Fervent National Tide.” The subhead:
“Jurists in controversial Pledge of Allegiance and terror group
rulings have long been fierce champions of the rights of
individuals.”
But demonstrating how local newspaper editors around the
nation are sometimes even more liberal than those at the big
national dailies, by the time that story ran the next day in the
Concord (N.H.) Monitor the June 30 headline proclaimed: “Judges
United by Dedication to the Constitution.” The subhead: “All Three
Value Individual Rights.”
An excerpt from the top of the story by Los Angeles Times
reporters Maura Dolan and David Rosenzweig:
One is a moderate Republican appointed to the bench by President
Nixon. Another is a liberal Democrat married to the director of
the Southern California chapter of the ACLU. The third, who spent
part of his youth in a World War II internment camp, is a Democrat
who was appointed by a Republican. The three California-based
federal judges are from disparate backgrounds, but all defied the
national mood of patriotism and security fears in the past week
with controversial rulings on the Pledge of Allegiance and
terrorism. All three time and again have taken strong stands
protecting individual rights over the objections of government —
and indeed, the majority of individuals.
Judge Alfred T. Goodwin, a moderate Republican, and Judge Stephen
R. Reinhardt, a liberal Democrat, joined together on the U.S. 9th
Circuit Court of Appeals Wednesday in a wildly unpopular ruling
that declared the Pledge of Allegiance violates the Constitution
because it contains the words “under God.”
A few days earlier, Los Angeles U.S. District Judge Robert M.
Takasugi, a Democrat appointed by former President Ford, ruled
that the process by which the government classifies groups as
terrorist in nature deprives the organizations of their
constitutional rights. The rulings come at a time when many
Americans fear more terrorist attacks and feel an urge to display
their patriotism with American flags on their homes, businesses
and cars.
Those who know the three jurists said they were not surprised they
made highly sensitive legal calls that were likely to offend.
Although different in temperament and philosophy, the three judges
are known for their fierce independence. Each has decades of
experience on the bench….
END of Excerpt
Recall seeing any similar media tributes to the “fierce
independence” of judges who made rulings which pleased
conservatives and angered liberals?