<$BlogRSDUrl$>

My personal musings about anything that gets on my radar screen--heavily dominated by politics.

2004-01-06

Doings in the Colorado Senate

The Majority Leader of the Colorado State Senate, Jon Andrews (R), said today that he will introduce legislation and a Constitutional Amendment that will begin to pare back some of the powers the judiciary holds in this state, and introduce the idea of accountability to the bench.

This has the potential to be the most far-reaching and important piece of business the legislature has to deal with this year (certainly far outstripping the goofy Conservative Affirmative Action on Campus action).
I was going to soon write an essay on the importance of balance, of the dangers of one-party rule (ref. California), and the reality that Colorado, though elected offices are dominated by the GOP, will never be one-party because of the judiciary. This act, on its face, would not remove the input of the liberal dominated bench, but simply restore it to its proper place in the balance of things. All you need to do to know the extent of the liberal leanings of the Colorado bench is consider the two recent rulings on redistricting and vouchers.

As a student (novice) of Eastern thought, I am a strong believer in the importance of balance. George Will has written that balance tends to reduce the ability of legislatures to enact laws, which tends to be a good thing. And, as we've seen in California, one party Democratic rule tends to be a debacle. We now have in both Washington and Colorado one party Republican rule; but until the judiciary stops acting as a separate liberal legislative body, there is a weak sort of balance. The point is, we've never seen true one-party GOP rule.

I, for one, am curious to see what would happen in that instance. I'm open to changing my mind about the need for balance.
Posted by: Michael / 1/06/2004 01:13:00 AM

Weblog Commenting by HaloScan.com

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?