Everyone knows that the Left has a stranglehold on higher education. Most university professors lean to the Left, and many are avowed communists. Christian parents are relieved if their children leave college with their faith and values intact.
A U.S. Supreme Court case being argued this week highlights the hostility Christian students face. The court is considering whether a Christian student group at Hasting College of the Law in San Francisco (part of the University of California) has the right to bar openly homosexual students from leadership positions. The student group, The Christian Legal Society (CLS), disallows "unrepentant participation in or advocacy of a sexually immoral lifestyle," which it says includes "homosexual conduct." The college, a public law school, decided to withdraw recognition of the group (and funding) after it refused to comply with the school's "anti-discrimination" policy.
Let me be clear: CLS does not bar students from attending meetings and other activities. All are welcome to do so. But they exclude those who do not follow its moral code-not just homosexuals but also fornicators, adulterers, non-Christians and others-from being voting members of the group and from holding leadership positions.
All groups discriminate in some ways. Could a non-Muslim head a Muslim student organization? No. Would it make sense for a male student to hold a leadership role in a campus woman's group? Of course not. That the school would expel a Christian group exposes the larger problem of intolerance for disfavored views in our university system.
As you might expect, the court is sharply split over the case. New Justice Sonia Sotomayor argued that no group should be allowed to discriminate for any reason. But conservative Justice Antonin Scalia asked whether a campus Republican club must admit Democrats or whether a Christian group must allow atheists to join and even conduct Bible classes. "That's crazy," Scalia said.
Court watchers believe this case is a proxy battle for a Supreme Court debate over same-sex "marriage" sometime in the next couple years. This case will probably be a 5-to-4 decision, and it's impossible to tell how the court will rule. Either way, the case underscores how no court appointment-especially those to the U.S. Supreme Court-should be taken lightly by Republicans.
The People Agree
As I mentioned in the item above, and in my Human Events column last week, Republican senators must take Supreme Court appointments much more seriously. There are millions of Americans who cherish traditional values, yet our courts are increasingly hostile to those values - the right to life, religious liberty, even the very meaning of marriage.
The Left realized decades ago that it could win major victories in the courtroom that could never get passed any legislative arena. So the Left has relentlessly politicized the judicial confirmation process. And from the savage treatment of Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas to the failed filibuster of Sam Alito, liberals have made it clear that for them it has always been about ideology.
I think it is way past time for conservatives to catch on to the hardball political game that the Left is playing with the courts. What do the American people think? A Rasmussen poll released yesterday finds that 56% of likely voters (including 59% of Independents) believe that "ideology and judicial philosophy are legitimate grounds" for opposing a nominee.
Republican senators should be encouraged by those results. They should not be afraid to aggressively question President Obama's nominee to determine whether or not that individual is hostile to the deeply held values of most Americans. If Obama's nominee is a radical judicial activist, Republican senators should not be afraid to oppose his or her confirmation, and they should make Democrats very afraid of supporting the nominee.
Bauer On Brody
Obama's shifting policy toward Israel has been making headlines in recent weeks. This week I had the chance to discuss U.S./Israeli relations and my recent trip to Israel with CBN's David Brody. You can watch my interview here.
Up Ten!
Four weeks after the passage of ObamaCare, a new Rasmussen poll finds likely voters favor Republican control of Congress by ten points - 46%-to-36%. According to Rasmussen, that is the "biggest [GOP] lead in nearly three years of weekly tracking."
Republicans continue to lead (46%-to-43%) in Gallup's survey of registered voters, which always underestimates the GOP's strength. And a new Gallup survey on Obama's job approval finds that as the president finished his fifth quarter in office, his 48.8% rating "ranks among the lowest for elected presidents' fifth quarters since World War II."
And here's another example, courtesy of the Associated Press, of just how bad it is for Democrats right now:
"President Barack Obama delivered Democrat-friendly California a stark message Monday: Liberal Sen. Barbara Boxer might lose her re-election race if her supporters don't work hard. The president's stern words in a state where he remains popular and Boxer won her last re-election race in a rout underscored the perilous political environment confronting all Democrats in this midterm election year..."
My friends, I've spent much of the day discussing key races with our staff and identifying the most vulnerable Democrats. I believe we can make significant gains in the upcoming elections. We'll be announcing our target list soon and making a major announcement.
But to make sure we can take advantage of every opportunity, we will need your support. Can you make a financial commitment? Can you write letters to your local newspaper? Can you volunteer for conservative candidates? What will you do in the next 196 days to stop Obama's socialism?
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CWF is a non-partisan political action committee (PAC) dedicated to electing pro-family, pro-life and pro-free enterprise candidates to public offices. Gary Bauer formed CWF in 1996 to represent the interests and values of America's traditional families in the political arena.
In the first two years of operation, CWF raised over $7 million to become the 5th largest PAC in the country for the 1998 election cycle and the leading pro-family, pro-life political action committee in America.
