As we know by now, the American Family Association’s Bryan Fischer is quite serious when he says that our laws and behaviors in America ought to correspond to Biblical law … as such, whales at Sea World ought to be put to death, and so should bears, and homosexuality should be criminalized, and people should be more like Phinehas, who saved Israel by killing two people who were engaged in sexual immorality.
And so it is no surprise that Fischer is now opposing Elena Kagan’s nomination to the Supreme Court on the grounds that she violates the “scriputal standard of judgment“:
[T]here are very specific criticisms directed at any judge who would bend and distort the law in order to produce verdicts in favor of the poor.
Here are some examples:
* “You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness you shall judge your neighbor” (Lev. 19:15).
* “You shall not fall in with the many to do evil, nor shall you bear witness in a lawsuit, siding with the many, so as to pervert justice, nor shall you be partial to a poor man in his lawsuit” (Ex. 23:2-3).
* “You shall not be partial in judgment. You shall hear the small and great alike”(Deut. 1:17).This is the standard of judging current chief justice John Roberts affirmed in his hearings. He said (paraphrasing), “If the law favors the little guy in my court, the little guy will win. If the law favors the big guy in my court, the big guy will win.” That is impartiality. That is the biblical standard for every judge at every level.
But listen in contrast to the words of nominee Elana Kagan. She wrote that the mission of the Supreme Court is to “show a special solicitude for the despised and the disadvantaged.”
In other words, she believes it is the role of a judge to bias the law toward the poor, whether the “despised and disadvantaged” are right or wrong. To put it bluntly, she believes in showing partiality to the poor in a court of law, the very thing repeatedly condemned in the Scriptures.
…
This is surely a recipe for injustice of the grossest kind.
This is and ought to be offensive to everyone who believes the Lady Justice ought to be utterly impartial, and offensive to everyone who holds the view of justice taught by the Judeo-Christian tradition … When it comes to our courts and our judges, we must as a nation choose between a biblical view of justice and Elana Kagan’s view of justice,which in fact is not justice at all. Truth, common sense and American tradition are not with Ms. Kagan or our president on this one. To borrow a phrase from Ms. Kagan, it would be “a moral injustice of the first order” for her to be elevated to the Supreme Court.
Of course, Kagan was actually quoting Justice Thurgood Marshall with the “show a special solicitude for the despised and the disadvantaged” line that Fischer highlights.
Now I am no Bible scholar, but isn’t there something in there about “thou shalt not bear false witness“? In fact, if you read past Leviticus 19:15, which Fischer cites as proof that Kagan is unfit, to the very next verse, this is what you find:
Do not go about spreading slander among your people.
Maybe Fischer should try and take that advice some time.
