McCain Courts Judicial Conservatives

Visiting Wake Forest University today, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) delivered a pointed speech about the disarray of U.S. courts and the type of judicial nominees he would support if elected President. Affirming his intent to nominate strict constructionists, McCain told the crowd that "...the duties and boundaries of the Constitution are not just a set of helpful suggestions. They are not just guidelines to be observed when it's convenient and loosely interpreted when it isn't." Frustrated by the "presumption" of federal judges to resolve policy questions "that should be decided democratically," McCain pledged to nominate judges in the mold of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito and Chief Justice John Roberts. "In federal and state courts... there are still men and women who understand the proper role of our judiciary. And I intend to find them and promote them... My nominees will understand that there are clear limits to the scope of judicial power," McCain said. He criticized his colleagues in the Senate for making time to pass exorbitant earmarks but relegating judicial nomination hearings to the bottom of their to-do lists. The Democratically controlled Senate views the judiciary as a tool for dictating social policy. If Congress doesn't have the votes to overturn the Defense of Marriage Act, its liberal allies will find a judge to declare it unconstitutional. Their hopes are ultimately pinned on a President, who, they hope, will nominate judicial activists to reshape the social landscape of America. We applaud Sen. McCain for pledging to make every federal court "a refuge from abuses of power, and not the source."

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McCain Criticizes 'Activist Judges'

In Loving Memory

America lost a true pioneer for civil rights yesterday as Mildred Loving, a black woman famous for her successful challenge of a state interracial marriage ban, died at the age of 68. Together with her husband Richard, the Loving case, which reached the Supreme Court in 1967, was an important landmark in the battle for racial equality. Never one to take credit for her courage, Mildred said last June, "I never wanted to be a hero--just a bride." Although homosexual activists are fond of portraying the Lovings' victory as a precedent for their cause, the Loving case didn't alter the definition of marriage but affirmed it by allowing any man to marry any woman. The nation is indebted to Mildred for a legacy that so aptly lives up to the couple's shared name.

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Mildred Loving Followed Her Heart and Made History

Holy Toledo! Ohio Employee Suspended for Voicing Her Values

As an incident in Toledo, Ohio unfolds, it seems that civil rights may not be as secure as most Americans think. Crystal Dixon, the associate vice president of human resources at the University of Toledo (UT), boldly countered a column published in the local Toledo Free Press called "Gay Rights and Wrongs," which compared the struggles of homosexuals to the struggles of black or handicapped Americans. Dixon took offense at the article and drafted a response, which was later published. In it, she writes, "As a Black woman who happens to be an alumnus of the University of Toledo's Graduate School, an employee and business owner, I take great umbrage at the notion that those choosing the homosexual lifestyle are 'civil rights victims.' Here's why. I cannot wake up tomorrow and not be a Black woman. I am genetically and biologically a Black woman." Her comments, which were published as a private citizen without reference to her UT employer, so enraged college officials that she was suspended from her job and subjected to public humiliation by UT President Lloyd Jacobs. In a Free Press follow-up article, Jacobs said that the university will take "internal actions" to ensure that his staff "fully aligns [its] utterances and actions with [the school's] values system." In one fell swoop, Jacobs was informing the world not only that the University of Toledo denies its employees a private right of speech but that an African American employee has no right to assert her opinion regarding her own civil rights heritage. These days, it takes tremendous courage to fight for free speech in an educational system that only selectively tolerates the exchange of ideas. We applaud Dixon and urge you to protest the school's intimidation by contacting President Lloyd Jacobs at (419) 530-2211 or by emailing UTPresident@utoledo.edu.



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UT puts official on leave over column

Sweet Land of Liberty?

While FRC has waited 147 days for a response from the State Department on the plight of the Chinese pastors, some groups--including the President's own commission on religious freedom--have waited even longer. For 18 months, members of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom have implored Secretary Condoleezza Rice to put 11 countries (including China) on its "watch list" of nations that have "engaged in or tolerated systemic and egregious violations of religious freedom." Only Secretary Rice holds the power to make these distinctions. Although the Commission serves as a bipartisan advisor to President Bush and Congress, the State Department continues to ignore its recommendations, signaling to the faith community that the U.S. has lost its voice at a critical juncture in the history of the persecuted church. Meanwhile, as the administration demonstrates its lack of interest in defending Christians, dozens of Chinese church leaders continue to waste away in labor camps, wondering what's taking the U.S. government so long to regain its nerve.

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Religious freedom panel urges State Dept. to take action