We saw Bush's recess judicial appointee to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, Charles Pickering on "60 Minutes" following Condi Rice. He showed himself to be every bit the conservative judicial activist people have been fearing all along. Rebuttable Presumption gives a recap--and, having worked in a federal probation office, some good commentary.

We were pretty disgusted with Pickering's interview. Of all the cases that show the unfairness of the federal sentencing guidelines--the one case he felt so strongly about he decided he just could not impose the mandated sentence--was that of a cross-burner convicted of a hate crime. He twisted the prosecution's arm to drop part of the charge so that he only had to give the guy 2 1/2 years instead of the recommended 7 1/2 years.

Protecting the independence and integrity of our federal courts is one of the best reasons we can think of for Booting Bush.

Update: For the reasons we oppose Charles Pickering and think he is not an acceptable federal appeals court judge, go here and here.

The President does not have a right to flood the judiciary with far right-wing ideologists, particularly if there is any indication that they will become judicial activists--deciding cases based upon their conservative views rather than the law. We lost on Pickering. The next one coming up is William Meyers. Act now to oppose his confirmation to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.