[Peace] Sandra Day O'Connor warns of a fall "into dictatorship."

[David Harley]

This is something I thought you might find interesting,  a transcript of 
Nina Totenberg's NPR account of Sandra Day O'Connor's Georgetown Law 
speech.  The original NPR segment is still posted on the NPR web site.  I 
first became aware of the story from an article in last 
Saturday's  Manchester Guardian.  The link to the NPR site is still active, 
.  The transcript is taken from a web page "Raw Story."  In her speech 
O'Conner warns of a drift toward "dictatorship."   As far as I can tell NPR 
only ran the story once on Saturday, I missed it.  It doesn't look as 
though any major paper reported it.  Nina Totenberg was the only reporter 
present.

Nina Totenberg: In an unusually forceful and forthright speech, O'Connor 
said that attacks on the judiciary by some Republican leaders pose a direct 
threat to our constitutional freedoms. O'Connor began by conceding that 
courts do have the power to make presidents or the Congress or governors, 
as she put it "really, really angry." But, she continued, if we don't make 
them mad some of the time we probably aren't doing our jobs as judges, and 
our effectiveness, she said, is premised on the notion that we won't be 
subject to retaliation for our judicial acts. The nation's founders wrote 
repeatedly, she said, that without an independent judiciary to protect 
individual rights from the other branches of government those rights and 
privileges would amount to nothing. But, said O'Connor, as the founding 
fathers knew statutes and constitutions don't protect judicial 
independence, people do.

And then she took aim at former House GOP leader Tom DeLay. She didn't name 
him, but she quoted his attacks on the courts at a meeting of the 
conservative Christian group Justice Sunday last year when DeLay took out 
after the courts for rulings on abortions, prayer and the Terri Schiavo 
case. This, said O'Connor, was after the federal courts had applied 
Congress' onetime only statute about Schiavo as it was written. Not, said 
O'Connor, as the congressman might have wished it were written. This 
response to this flagrant display of judicial restraint, said O'Connor, her 
voice dripping with sarcasm, was that the congressman blasted the courts.
It gets worse, she said, noting that death threats against judges are 
increasing. It doesn't help, she said, when a high-profile senator suggests 
there may be a connection between violence against judges and decisions 
that the senator disagrees with. She didn't name him, but it was Texas 
senator John Cornyn who made that statement, after a Georgia judge was 
murdered in the courtroom and the family of a federal judge in Illinois 
murdered in the judge's home. O'Connor observed that there have been a lot 
of suggestions lately for so-called judicial reforms, recommendations for 
the massive impeachment of judges, stripping the courts of jurisdiction and 
cutting judicial budgets to punish offending judges. Any of these might be 
debatable, she said, as long as they are not retaliation for decisions that 
political leaders disagree with.
I, said O'Connor, am against judicial reforms driven by nakedly partisan 
reasoning. Pointing to the experiences of developing countries and former 
communist countries where interference with an independent judiciary has 
allowed dictatorship to flourish, O'Connor said we must be ever-vigilant 
against those who would strongarm the judiciary into adopting their 
preferred policies. It takes a lot of degeneration before a country falls 
into dictatorship, she said, but we should avoid these ends by avoiding 
these beginnings.
Nina Totenberg, NPR News, Washington.
.  As far as I can tell NPR only ran the story once on Saturday.
Via NPR. Rush transcript by . Listen to the .
Supreme Court justices keep many opinions private but Sandra Day O'Connor 
no longer faces that obligation. Yesterday, the retired justice criticized 
Republicans who criticized the courts. She said they challenge the 
independence of judges and the freedoms of all Americans. O'Connor's speech 
at Georgetown University was not available for broadcast but NPR's legal 
affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg was there.
Nina Totenberg: In an unusually forceful and forthright speech, O'Connor 
said that attacks on the judiciary by some Republican leaders pose a direct 
threat to our constitutional freedoms. O'Connor began by conceding that 
courts do have the power to make presidents or the Congress or governors, 
as she put it "really, really angry." But, she continued, if we don't make 
them mad some of the time we probably aren't doing our jobs as judges, and 
our effectiveness, she said, is premised on the notion that we won't be 
subject to retaliation for our judicial acts. The nation's founders wrote 
repeatedly, she said, that without an independent judiciary to protect 
individual rights from the other branches of government those rights and 
privileges would amount to nothing. But, said O'Connor, as the founding 
fathers knew statutes and constitutions don't protect judicial 
independence, people do.

And then she took aim at former House GOP leader Tom DeLay. She didn't name 
him, but she quoted his attacks on the courts at a meeting of the 
conservative Christian group Justice Sunday last year when DeLay took out 
after the courts for rulings on abortions, prayer and the Terri Schiavo 
case. This, said O'Connor, was after the federal courts had applied 
Congress' onetime only statute about Schiavo as it was written. Not, said 
O'Connor, as the congressman might have wished it were written. This 
response to this flagrant display of judicial restraint, said O'Connor, her 
voice dripping with sarcasm, was that the congressman blasted the courts.
It gets worse, she said, noting that death threats against judges are 
increasing. It doesn't help, she said, when a high-profile senator suggests 
there may be a connection between violence against judges and decisions 
that the senator disagrees with. She didn't name him, but it was Texas 
senator John Cornyn who made that statement, after a Georgia judge was 
murdered in the courtroom and the family of a federal judge in Illinois 
murdered in the judge's home. O'Connor observed that there have been a lot 
of suggestions lately for so-called judicial reforms, recommendations for 
the massive impeachment of judges, stripping the courts of jurisdiction and 
cutting judicial budgets to punish offending judges. Any of these might be 
debatable, she said, as long as they are not retaliation for decisions that 
political leaders disagree with.
I, said O'Connor, am against judicial reforms driven by nakedly partisan 
reasoning. Pointing to the experiences of developing countries and former 
communist countries where interference with an independent judiciary has 
allowed dictatorship to flourish, O'Connor said we must be ever-vigilant 
against those who would strongarm the judiciary into adopting their 
preferred policies. It takes a lot of degeneration before a country falls 
into dictatorship, she said, but we should avoid these ends by avoiding 
these beginnings.
Nina Totenberg, NPR News, Washington.