Kudos to Leubsdorf



Carl Leubsdorf

Excellent column in today’s Dallas Morning News by the paper’s former Washington bureau chief Carl Leubsdorf in which he correctly exposes the right wing-nuts’ charges of "judicial activism" when the court makes landmark decisions involving the political process. (I would try to post a link to the column, but, under the Morning News’s paywall system, readers would probably be charged, so I’m not going down that path. But if you can get a copy of today’s paper, you can find the column on Page 15A).

"After all," Leubsdorf writes, "‘judicial activism,’ like beauty is in the eye of the beholder. For decades, conservatives such as (Texas Attorney General Greg) Abbott have used those words to criticize federal court decisions they dislike."

He points out, correctly, that no one heard a peep from the right wing-nuts when the U.S. Supreme Court, which has been dominated by Republican appointees for the last 40+ years, tossed a presidential election to an undeserving candidate or award most elections to those with the most money.

The reason for Leubsdorf’s latest rant is Abbott’s attempt to derail the redistricting map created by Republican-dominated federal court in San Antonio and reinstate the patently unfair map prepared by the Texas Legislature. For those not following the debate, Texas was granted four additional seats in the House of Representatives, based on the last census, largely because of the dramatic increase in the state’s Hispanic population. But instead of creating districts that could be won by Hispanics (who consistently vote Democratic), the Republican-controlled Legislature created four rural districts safe for Republican candidates.

"Attacking ‘activist judges’ has been a GOP battle cry for many years, and it plays well with the party faithful," Leubsdorf writes. "But in this case, those allegedly ‘activist judges’ are correcting the action of an overly activist Legislature."

Well said, Mr. Leubsdorf.