Evangelical Republicans Trust States on Social Issues

WaPo reported Evangelical Protestant Republicans are far more likely than other groupsto want courts to stay out of controversial social questions, suggesting that GOP criticism of "activist judges" resonates with the party's core constituency, a new Washington Post-ABC News poll has found. Asked whether they trusted their state legislatures or state courts more to address the question of same-sex marriage, 69 percent of self-identified evangelical Protestant Republicans chose lawmakers. Nineteen percent backed the courts, and 11 percent said neither. In contrast, a slim plurality of 45 percent nationwide preferred that legislatures deal with same-sex marriage, 40 percent favored the courts, and 11 percent said neither. On the question of abortion, the country split evenly, 44 percent each for courts and state legislatures. But 66 percent of evangelical Protestant Republicans believed the issue should be left up to their state legislators, and 26 percent preferred the courts. Separately, a poll released yesterday by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press found that discontent among conservative Republicans and evangelical Protestants has fueled a significant drop in public support for the U.S. Supreme Court.

Sam Rosenfeld blogged Clearly the right has succeeded in mobilizing its own members around opposition to the judiciary, and has had at least some small success in instigating a broader questioning of the courts' legitimacy. I have an article in the upcoming print issue of the Prospect that goes into this in a bit more detail, but basically the next phase in the campaign will be a lengthy series of House Judiciary Committee hearings in the next few months, analyzing our "runaway courts" and touching on all the major right-wing complaints. The hearings will provide an oppurtunity to further stoke and sustain the outrage of the Christian right while giving lawmakers a chance to try to chip away at the broader public’s faith in the legitimacy of the modern judiciary. The hope is that sustaining the debate will shift popular sentiments and lay the groundwork for future action.

Legislation is the job of the legislature; both state and federal. It is the court's job to apply the laws passed bu the Legislative Branch. They may decide that a Federal Law superceeds a State Law, or that a Federal Law or a State Law is unconstitutional, but other wise their job is to apply existing law, not to create new laws. A judge that wants to make new law should resign and run for the Legislature.