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When a 5-4 Michigan Supreme Court this week took away citizens'
rights to sue under the Michigan Environmental Protection Act (MEPA),
the court's right-wing judicial activists, led by Justice Clifford
Taylor, may have finally stepped over the line in their quest to turn
over our legal system to corporate special interests. Last week's
decision was offensive in its gutting of a key provision of
environmental law. But it was the cavalier attitude displayed towards
Michigan's Constitution by the court's activist majority that is truly
dangerous. It seems nothing--not even the plain language of our
constitution on environmental protection--will stand in the way of
Taylor and his brethren from using the court to legislate their
right-wing agenda. But Taylor is up for election in 2008. Flipping
one seat won't necessarily undo the damage done last week. But it
could be the only thing to prevent this activist court from sealing the
deal for polluters for generations and making our Constitution just
another speed bump along the way. It's tough beating an incumbent
Supreme Court judge because the state's election laws give justices a
designation on the ballot worth maybe 20 points. But it seems the
Democrats are cooking up a strategy to close the gap and give folks a
chance to elect a justice for us. Eric Baerren writes
about it in today's Morning Sun. David Holtz Michigan Director Clean Water Action http://www.cleanwateraction.org/mi/ "“If the success or failure of this planet, and of human beings, depended on how I am and what I do, how would I be? What would I do?” --Buckminster Fuller |