National Lawyers Guild Considers Campaign to Impeach Supreme Court Justices...

National Lawyers Guild Considers Campaign to Impeach Supreme Court Justices Who Stopped Fla. Vote Count
Interview by Between The Lines' Scott Harris.

The 2000 presidential election was virtually decided when the Supreme Court voted 5 to 4 in the Bush vs. Gore case to stop the vote count in Florida. Since then, anger at the defects in the U.S. electoral system has simmered below the radar screen of the corporate media. In fact, few questions about the unprecedented role of the Supreme Court in selecting the U.S. president have been raised by major American newspapers and television networks. Mainstream commentators, by and large, have urged critics unhappy with George W. Bush's bizarre road to the White House to "get over it."

Some activists have turned their attention toward correcting the flaws in the U.S. electoral system by proposing measures that include abolition of the Electoral College; advocacy for a system of instant run-off voting; and modernization of election machinery. But not everyone has forgotten what many critics view as the blatant partisanship of the Supreme Court in the Florida decision.

The executive committee of the National Lawyers Guild recently recommended that Guild members undertake a nationwide campaign to impeach those five conservative Supreme Court Justices who voted to stop the state of Florida's vote count. The proposal, already endorsed by the Democratic Party of Oregon, will be voted on by Guild members at their national convention in October.

Between The Lines' Scott Harris spoke with Nathan Newman, vice president of the National Lawyers Guild, who explains why he is advocating the launch of a campaign to impeach Justices William Rehnquist, Antonin Scalia, Sandra Day O'Connor, Clarence Thomas and Anthony Kennedy. (A RealAudio Version of this interview may be found At http://www.btlonline.org) .

Contact the National Lawyers Guild by calling (212) 627-2656 or visit their Web site at http://www.nlg.org

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