Taking the Bias and Making it So Much More


(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?

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