Irony
Bothered by Harper's appointment of wingnut David Brown, I was surfing around trying to find out if there's even one liberal appointee who's as far to the left as Brown is to the right. I couldn't find any -- no shit -- but I did stumble upon something kind of funny, in a sick and twisted way.
Last July, ultra-conservative lobby group REALwomen published a press release that accused Chief Justice Roy McMurtry of judicial misconduct in his involvement in the Halpern case (legalizing same-sex marriage), because his daughter is in a same-sex relationship. RW maintains that this gave McMurtry a familial interest in the case and impaired his objectivity. They also accused him of bias in that he selected judges sympathetic to SSM to hear the case, and said this was "contrary to the judicial obligation to act objectively, impartially and with neutrality". They stated that McMurtry's bias was obvious because 2 weeks after the decision, he attended a celebration with the couples involved, during which he was photographed with his arms around a same-sex couple!!!!!! ARRRGGGHH!!! Oh, I can just see the pitchforks and flaming torches now ...
It was just the wingnuts at RW in the throes of an indignation high, and appropos of nothing, the usual "activist judges" bullshit. But now we have David Brown, who really is an activist, and it'll be interesting to see if he lets his biases influence his decisions. And if REALwomen is calling for him to be neutral and objective.
EDIT: I removed the link to the RW site.
Last July, ultra-conservative lobby group REALwomen published a press release that accused Chief Justice Roy McMurtry of judicial misconduct in his involvement in the Halpern case (legalizing same-sex marriage), because his daughter is in a same-sex relationship. RW maintains that this gave McMurtry a familial interest in the case and impaired his objectivity. They also accused him of bias in that he selected judges sympathetic to SSM to hear the case, and said this was "contrary to the judicial obligation to act objectively, impartially and with neutrality". They stated that McMurtry's bias was obvious because 2 weeks after the decision, he attended a celebration with the couples involved, during which he was photographed with his arms around a same-sex couple!!!!!! ARRRGGGHH!!! Oh, I can just see the pitchforks and flaming torches now ...
It was just the wingnuts at RW in the throes of an indignation high, and appropos of nothing, the usual "activist judges" bullshit. But now we have David Brown, who really is an activist, and it'll be interesting to see if he lets his biases influence his decisions. And if REALwomen is calling for him to be neutral and objective.
EDIT: I removed the link to the RW site.
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