The Daily Background

One of the favorite election-year targets of hate that Republicans have are “activist judges.” Now who exactly these “activist judges” are, I don’t exactly know. The judges who decided that black men could marry white women in the first place were probably “activist judges.” The judges who decided that women should have the right to vote were probably “activist judges.”

The judges who decided that segregation was unconstitutional certainly were “activist judges” and conservatives called them that at the time- like it was some sort of terrible insult. It was the liberal, activist judges who decided that equality had to prevail over bigotry, hate and discrimination.

Republicans often use the phantom of “activist judges” in order to get people to vote for them. If you don’t vote for us so we can permenantly ban equality for gay people, activist judges will ruin your marriage. Well, according to a new poll, this rhetoric may not fly with voters this year.

Despite politicians’ complaints about judges having too much power, two-thirds of Americans do not believe elected officials should have more control over federal judges, according to a new CNN poll released Saturday.

Sixty-seven percent of 1,013 people surveyed by Opinion Research Corp. on behalf of CNN said federal judges — and the decisions they make — should not be subject to more control.

Only 30 percent said they should.

That was from a new CNN/OPR poll.

Filed under: Supreme Court, Polls, Z-TDB Blog