Courts, Not Spying, Real Threat to Liberties
January 03, 2006 12:16 AM EST
by Doug Patton

Liberals can barely contain their glee as they feign concern for the nation’s security, even as they compromise it. Meanwhile, President Bush claims that recent leaks published in The New York Times are a much greater threat than any perceived violations of civil liberties resulting from domestic spying on Americans known to be communicating with terrorists.

Both miss the point that the courts continue to be the worst abusers of our rights. From abortion to homosexual marriage, from infringement of religious freedoms to abuses of eminent domain, for the last four decades, the erosion of our constitutional liberties has come not from the executive branch but from the judiciary. A few examples:

The courts foisted upon America a holocaust of abortion with 1973’s Roe vs. Wade decision. In 2000, in a 5-4 ruling in Carhart vs. Stenberg, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Nebraska’s ban on the gruesome procedure known as partial birth abortion. In 2003, President Bush signed a federal ban into law, but federal judges immediately barred its implementation.

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