Remove 9/11 from the GOP Vocabulary

Congress needs to pass legislation precluding GOP invocation of 9/11.  Yes, it is an infringement on First Amendment rights but is supported by the strong government interest in preventing the fear mongering policy of the GOP and the central role in which 9/11 plays in such a policy.  It also protects against the huge affront to the survivors of the 9/11 attacks and the families of those who did not survive.  Why, you may ask, do I suggest such sweeping legislation?  It is fueled by the analysis of one of the groups opposing Judge Sotomayor’s nomination.  Rather than leading a fact-based discourse, the author seeks to capitalize on the tragedy of 9/11 in much the same way that the Bush/Cheney administration did.

This is from Wendy Long, Counsel to the Judicial Confirmation Network, as related in the WSJ:

Judge Sotomayor is a liberal judicial activist of the first order who thinks her own personal political agenda is more important than the law as written. She thinks that judges should dictate policy, and that one’s sex, race, and ethnicity ought to affect the decisions one renders from the bench.

She reads racial preferences and quotas into the Constitution, even to the point of dishonoring those who preserve our public safety. On September 11, America saw firsthand the vital role of America’s firefighters in protecting our citizens. They put their lives on the line for her and the other citizens of New York and the nation. But Judge Sotomayor would sacrifice their claims to fair treatment in employment promotions to racial preferences and quotas. The Supreme Court is now reviewing that decision.

She has an extremely high rate of her decisions being reversed, indicating that she is far more of a liberal activist than even the current liberal activist Supreme Court.

Judge Sotomayor’s ruling in the NY Firefighter case has nothing to do about 9/11, unless Ms. Long suggests 9/11 only led to the death of white firefighters.  This is about a personnel test and promotions and not about the tragedy that was 9/11.  But, of course, one of the last remaining quivers in the GOP arsenal is the indiscriminate use of 9/11 as their raison d'etre.  Ms. Long should be disbarred along with all the Justice Department lawyers who argued that their was a legal basis to waterboarding.  They are all guilty of spurious legal argumentation.  Oh, and by the way, her reversal rate is by no means high or out of the ordinary.