Impeach Judge Hamilton

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It must stop. On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton of California declared unconstitutional the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act passed overwhelmingly by Congress and signed scant months ago by the president, while being supported by 75 percent of the public. As a consequence of Judge Hamilton's injunction, the appalling partial-birth abortion procedure will continue to be practiced across the land. Because of her order, living infants will continue to be killed in a most cruel manner. It abrogates the clear will of the majority of American people on the matter, as expressed both in public-opinion polls and the votes of their elected representatives.

Unlike Judge Hamilton, citizens are not free to capriciously choose which legislative statutes or constitutional strictures suit them. They have no power to nullify laws they find abhorrent. They are subjects of, and subject to, the rule of law. That law now includes the diktat of Judge Hamilton.

There is no hoop that bench-sitting radicals such as Judge Hamilton cannot force lawmakers to jump through in the name of defending the Constitution. No clarity of language and nobility of purpose can protect a statute from being voided by these berobed radicals who willfully misconstrue the Constitution for their own un-American purposes. They claim to protect the Constitution even as their rulings regularly corrupt its very essence. Their threats to declare unconstitutional any law that fails to fit their worldview intimidates lawmakers, deranges the lawmaking process and defeats the will of the public.

Such perversion is a practiced pattern for Judge Hamilton. In December, she declared as constitutional the role-playing of Islam forced on a class of seventh-graders at a California middle school. The students were required to take a Muslim name, give up candy for a day to demonstrate the daytime fast of Ramadan and even recite a Muslim prayer. In ruling on the subsequent lawsuit, Judge Hamilton breezily asserted that the students "cannot be considered to have performed any actual religious activities." Any teacher caught trying to do the same with Christianity would be crucified.

The only lawful remedy for such black-robed radicals -- who have manifestly hijacked the law and the lives of the most innocent members of society for their own ideological purposes -- is impeachment by the House and removal by the Senate. The power is available, although rarely applied. It should be exerted in this case, and in others so extreme. Each member of the House should draw up articles of impeachment against Judge Hamilton or co-sponsor such a resolution. Those who do not should be prepared to explain why they are willing to let such an outrage against decency and the rule of law go unchallenged.

Judges recklessly intent on suborning the popular will must be restrained by the powers granted to the chosen representatives of the people. Judge Hamilton's signature permitted the indoctrination of seventh graders. On Tuesday, it outlawed the outlawing of baby killing. No lawful means should be spared to stop Judge Hamilton and others like her.