JUDGE BIERY VS MEDINA VALLEY HS

I have said this before and I will say it again … the founding fathers got a lot of things right when they formed this nation, but they did make a few mistakes. Among those mistakes was this one: lifetime appointments to the courts.

I believe that the US Constitution should be amended to end lifetime appointments. I believe in term limits. I think that not only should the president be limited to two terms, I think that congressional representatives, senators, and judges should also have limited terms as well. I think that senators should be limited to two terms and that congressional representatives should be limited to five two-year terms.

Since federal judges are appointed and not elected, I think that they should be limited to twelve years on the bench of any given court with a maximum of twenty years as a federal judge overall. I also believe that they should have to pass periodic votes of confidence from a legislative body consisting of both senators and congressional representatives in order to stay on the bench. I know that some people will say by doing that the judicial system will become politicized. I have news for you … it already is.

I also believe that judges should have to face consequences for the rulings that they make. In other words they should have to pay for their mistakes. Until they are held accountable for their actions, they will consider themselves beyond reproach.

Judge Fred Biery demonstrates this. He was appointed to the court in 1994, which makes him a President Clinton appointee. He was also a democrat party leader in college, which means that he picked up the 1960 and 1970’s political and social ideologies of the Vietnam era. I have said over and over again that the ideals of that era have caused tremendous damage to the country … especially those ideals that surfaced on college campuses of the day. A lot of leftist thinking made its way into this country back then. Now Fred Biery is a Chief Justice of a court.

For those of you who don’t know who Fred Biery is, he is the Chief Justice of the US district court of the Western District of Texas. He recently ruled that prayer could not be said at the Medina Valley HS graduation ceremony to be held on June 4, 2011. Fortunately he was over ruled by the US 5th Circuit Court of Appeals … but this never should have happened in the United States.

With Judge Biery on the court, an injustice was made against the first amendment. The first amendment guarantees the right to freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and freedom of the press. This amendment does not grant judges the right to infringe on any of those rights in the public square.

We live in a democracy that has established that ours is a government that is accountable to we the people. Remember this …“government of the people, by the people, for the people”. That means majority rules. It doesn’t mean that racial, ethnic, or even political party majority rules.

Clearly Fred Biery does not represent the majority of American’s thoughts … he doesn’t even represent the majority of thoughts on the courts. I’m sure if Donald Trump could do it he’d tell Fred … you’re fired. I haven’t done a lot of research on Fred, but from the little that I have read about him I have found that this isn’t the first time he’s attacked religion … and from what I can gather, it is not going to be his last. That is why I think we should have a system in place to put checks on judges … and not just on federal judges but on all judges no matter what court they preside over. The only way to keep anyone honest, especially a judge, is the threat of scrutiny, ridicule, embarrassment, or legal action otherwise we leave ourselves at their mercy. As the saying goes “the pen is mightier than the sword”, and no one has a mightier pen than a judge.

There you have it.
Pass it along if you like of let me know if I don’t have a clue.

Eddie