« Islamofascism | Main | Paying Up »

September 15, 2003

The Ninth Strikes (Out) Again

Once again defending their political beliefs at the cost of the law, the Ninth Circuit has ordered the California recall election delayed until March, giving Gray Davis an additional five months to continue his desperate attempt to buy votes. I haven't spoken much about the recall as yet, and I won't bother to now. I'm not from California, I've never lived there, and I never plan to. What California chooses to do politically is their business, as long as they keep it inside California.

The Ninth Circuit's decision, however, seems to once again illustrate the shift of political power from the people to the courts. Regardless of what one might think of the recall procedure and how it has played out thus far, it is a procedure provided for by the California state constitution and has been endorsed by more than a million voters. Yet the Ninth showed no hesitation in interfering with the process, to the delight of Democrats who would have screamed bloody murder about 'hijacking the elections process' were the shoe on the other foot. This action also calls into question the dubious impartiality of the ACLU, which had no objection to the punch card voting machines during the 2002 election, when Grey Davis beat Bill Simon.

The bottom line for elections is simple: with the number of voters we have in America, mistakes will be made. The best we can do is seek good-faith measures to reduce the errors as much as possible. (Probably the best means for doing this is what Glenn Reynolds suggested last year: paper ballots. Virtually fraud proof, easy to recount, and difficult to screw up.) Selective lawsuits intended to provide an advantage to one candidate over another may benefit certain candidates or parties, but they only harm the general electorate. After having jumped through the hoops their constitution requires of them, California citizens must now endure additional months of campaigning and (if Davis is ultimately recalled) additional months of dismal government because of the fear of mistakes; a fear that has not stopped any election in California prior to now. The court's snide appeal to setting an example for Iraq aside, there is no compelling reason to believe that the possible errors are more critical in this election than in any past one.

The Ninth Circuit has shot yet another brick in their continuing quest to replace democracy with oligarchy. The Supreme Court may yet rescind this decision, but the problem of out-of-control judges continues to grow. How much longer will we permit unelected judges to try and run the country?