May 29, 2000


The Protests in Washington:

What's Next?
BY JASON VEST

The Insider
BY DAVID MOBERG
Joseph Stiglitz challenges the Washington consensus.

Breaking Law to Keep Order
BY TERRY J. ALLEN
Free speech can be hazardous
to your health.

The Riot That Wasn't
BY DAVID GRAEBER

The Protest Next Time
BY LAURA FLANDERS


Christian Right Update:

Bench Press
BY HANS JOHNSON
Bush promises to stack the courts
for the far right.

Does God Hate Unions?
BY HANS JOHNSON

All the Right Moves
BY BILL BERKOWITZ
Bush is still beholden to religious conservatives.


News & Views

Editorial
BY SALIM MUWAKKIL
A common enemy.

Appall-O-Meter
BY DAVID FUTRELLE

A Terry Laban Cartoon

Seeking Justice
BY DAVE LINDORFF
The Supreme Court narrowly
defends habeas corpus

Atomic Reacton
BY JEFFREY ST. CLAIR
Officials use global warming
to save nuclear power

Mad Grads
BY KARI LYDERSEN
Graduate student unions are
gaining ground nationwide

Profile
BY TERRY J. ALLEN
Dyke to watch out for.


Culture

Red Gotham
BY KIM PHILLIPS-FEIN
BOOKS: Working-Class New York

Dinner and a Show
BY JASON SHOLL
BOOKS: The Invention of the Restaurant

Secrets and Lives
BY SCOTT McLEMEE
FILM: Joe Gould's Secret

Moms Rule
BY
BETH SCHULMAN
Ariel Gore, one hip mama.

 
Bench Press

By Hans Johnson

He defended anti-abortion extremists and clinic blockaders. He likened the drive for legal protections by gays and lesbians to the Nazis, calling it a "panzer movement" that is "out to destroy the family as we know it." But Jay Sekulow is no man of the margins. And next year he could be screening nominees for the Supreme Court - from inside the White House.

In its sporadic attention to George W. Bush's courtship of the religious right, the press has focused on the Texas governor's visit to Bob Jones University and the role of former Christian Coalition executive director Ralph Reed, a Bush campaign consultant who in April was caught lobbying Dubya on behalf of Microsoft. Largely overlooked, however, has been the wooing of conservatives like Sekulow, an attorney at Pat Robertson's American Center for Law and Justice in Virginia, who carried a pro-school prayer legal brief signed by Bush into oral arguments at the Supreme Court in March. Also neglected is the substance of Bush's appeal to the Christian right: a pledge to appoint "strict constructionist," conservative judges to the federal bench.

In this election, Bush's judicial pledge of allegiance to conservatives looms large. Five of the nine justices on the U.S. Supreme Court are considered candidates for retirement in the next few years. Raising the stakes further is the abundance of vacancies throughout the federal courts. In Washington, Democrats have accused Senate Republicans of slowing down the judicial nomination process during Clinton's second term to keep spots open for a possible GOP victor to fill upon taking office next January. Seventy-eight spots, or nearly 10 percent of all federal judgeships, are currently vacant.

 

 

 

 


In These Times © 2000
Vol. 24, No. 13