John Dean on the Rise of Dominionist Judges

John Dean, former White House Counsel under Richard Nixon, highly recommends Michelle Goldberg's Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism. He was particularly interested in the strategy and goals of Christian Nationalists in their efforts to takeover the judiciary.

After reading her book, Dean also interviewed Goldberg to discuss why Dominionists desire to control the courts. Here's an excerpt from his column:

Christian Nationalists Seek To Use the Courts to Implement Their Agenda

It's well-established that the religious right seeks to use the courts to outlaw abortion, to return prayer to the public square, and lower the barriers separating church and state. What was news to me, however, was Goldberg's finding that the "entire Christian nationalist agenda ultimately hinges on conquering the courts." Christian nationalists, who have been working with others in the conservative movement, have declared nothing short of a war on the federal courts.

Reconstructionist leaders see federal judges -- probably correctly, Goldberg notes -- "as the only thing protecting American secularism. They know that if they can take the courts, they'll have the country." Their strategy to take the courts is twofold, although, as Goldberg notes, it's also "somewhat contradictory" -- and it envisions a protracted battle.

First, Christian nationalists plan to pressure politicians "to pack the bench with their ideological allies," and they are "training a new generation of home schooled jurists who will approach the law with a Christian worldview." Christian nationalists are among the strongest proponents of home schooling, with somewhere between one and two million children now being so educated. One of the handbooks of the Christian nationalists, which Goldberg found at a convention for home-schoolers, was How to Dethrone the Imperial Judiciary by Edwin Vieira, who has alluded, Goldberg reports, "to Stalin's purges as a way of dealing with liberal judges."

If any home-schooled jurist has reached the federal bench, it escaped my fast perusal of recent appointees. So these plans have yet to be fully implemented, to say the least.

Second, accompanying the attempt at court-packing, Goldberg reports that Christian nationalists are "trying to strip the courts of much of their current authority" while "railing against judges who override the popular will." Or as Goldberg nicely summarizes Christian nationalists' strategy, they "are simultaneously fighting a war for the judiciary and a war on it."

Goldberg cites two right-wing judges nominated by President Bush as the kind who would satisfy the court packing plans of the Christian nationalists. Both judges -- William Pryor and Janice Rogers Brown -- initially provoked Democratic filibusters. Unfortunately, my quick search of the debate in the Senate on these two highly controversial nominees does not reveal that anyone in the Senate opposing these nominees was aware that behind them, lurked the hand of the Christian nationalists.

I think I know another name that could be added to this list.