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<DIV><FONT size=4>05-16-05 CNN:</FONT></DIV>
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<H1>The Posse in the Pulpit</H1>
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<P>By DANIEL EISENBERG<BR><SPAN class=cnnStoryTime><!-- date -->
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<FONT size=1>Monday, May 16, 2005 Posted: 2:31 PM EDT (1831 GMT) </FONT><!-- /date --><BR></SPAN></P></FONT></DIV>
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<P><B style="FONT-SIZE: 14px">Ever since he witnessed an AIDS-awareness
presentation at a Houston-area high school that went into explicit detail about
how condoms could prevent the spread of the disease, the Rev. Rick Scarborough
has been the kind of dedicated activist the G.O.P. has to thank for much of its
current dominance. </B></P>
<P>Since that day in 1992, Scarborough, 55, has believed that "Christians have a
moral responsibility in this country to be involved in politics." For most of
the past decade, the outspoken Baptist minister from Texas has used his pulpit
to help elect conservative judges and politicians. </P>
<P>Along the way, his organization, Vision America, has recruited 3,000 to 4,000
"patriot pastors" in parts of the South and Midwest to help get out the
evangelical-Christian vote.</P>
<P>That turned out to be such a success that Scarborough has turned his focus to
the one branch of the Federal Government that Republicans don't fully control:
the judiciary. </P>
<P>Although seven of the nine Supreme Court Justices were appointed by
Republicans, and G.O.P. appointees account for the majority of judges on 10 of
the 13 federal appeals courts, Scarborough and others believe the bench is the
last bastion of liberalism. </P>
<P>Like so many of his preaching peers--from D. James Kennedy in Fort
Lauderdale, Florida, to Rod Parsley near Columbus, Ohio--Scarborough believes
that "activist" judges have imposed their personal beliefs by creating new
rights on abortion, gay marriage and pornography that aren't expressly stated in
the Constitution. </P>
<P>They say those same judges have also restricted freedom of religion by, for
example, ordering the removal of a Ten Commandments monument from the grounds of
the Alabama state supreme court. Last week's federal-court decision overturning
Nebraska's gay-marriage ban has only added fuel to the right's fire. </P>
<P>Thus, Scarborough is spending most of his time these days working to beat
back Democrats' attempts to block several of President Bush's judicial nominees.
</P>
<P>"It takes two-thirds of Congress, the President's signature and three-fourths
of the states to change the Constitution--or one judge," says Scarborough,
sitting beneath the mounted head of a whitetail deer in his east Texas office.
"And believe me, the left learned that a long time ago."</P>
<P>But for all the value of evangelical activists to the G.O.P., this may be a
moment when their conviction is as much a headache as a help. They are refusing
to accept anything but total victory--namely, up or down majority votes in the
Senate for all the nominees, which would almost certainly guarantee their
confirmation. </P>
<P>That position is making it very difficult for the two parties to achieve a
face-saving compromise. Unless Democrats agree to allow floor votes on all the
White House's nominees, Senate majority leader Bill Frist has threatened to use
the Republican majority to prohibit judicial filibusters.</P>
<P>Often referred to as the "nuclear option," the move would change a Senate
tradition that lets the minority party drag on debate unless the majority can
muster 60 votes to stop it. </P>
<P>In response, Democrats, who point out that Republicans used other procedural
tricks to block more of President Bill Clinton's judicial nominees than
Democrats have blocked of Bush's, have vowed to tie up the Senate in other ways.
</P>
<P>The Senate could be headed for this historic showdown in part because it
anticipates an inevitable one down the line: a full-blown confirmation brawl
over the next Supreme Court nominee.</P>
<P>For now, neither party really wants to be here, and apparently not many
Americans want to either. In a new TIME poll, close to 40% of respondents said
courts have too much power, but almost 60% said the judicial filibuster should
not be eliminated. </P>
<P>Nevertheless, activists like Scarborough are on a mission to give "courage"
to G.O.P. Senators like John McCain, Olympia Snowe and Lincoln Chafee, who are
against changing Senate rules. </P>
<P>Senator Susan Collins has been the target of TV ads in her home state of
Maine, and her office has been deluged with thousands of calls on the issue.
</P>
<P>Much of the direction for the antifilibuster campaign has come from the
Arlington Group, a loose coalition of religious-right leaders that includes
Scarborough, James Dobson of Focus on the Family and Richard Land of the
Southern Baptists.</P>
<P>Frist's chief of staff, Eric Ueland, insists the idea that the filibuster
fracas is tied to pressure from the religious right is "wrong-headed
speculation." But last week, after a series of attempts at a deal with Democrats
to allow votes on just a few of Bush's nominees fell apart, Frist staff members
held a conference call with leaders of the Christian right to allay concerns
that the majority leader might be losing the stomach for the fight. </P>
<P>Given his well-known ambitions to run for President in 2008, Frist has to be
especially careful not to alienate the evangelical supporters he will surely
need. </P>
<P>His counterpart, Senate minority leader Harry Reid, of course has his liberal
groups, like People for the American Way, holding his feet to the fire; their
barrage of TV ads has even targeted moderate Republicans like Arlen Specter of
Pennsylvania.</P>
<P>Dealing with nominations is only part of the Christian right's growing
judicial reform agenda. Some House conservatives have talked openly about
effectively shutting down certain courts and judges by tightening the
judiciary's purse strings. </P>
<P>House Judiciary Committee chairman F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. recently
floated the idea of establishing an inspector general for the federal judiciary
to monitor how money is being spent. He also repeated his support for a House
measure that would divide into three separate circuits the San Francisco-- based
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, derided by conservatives for decisions like its
2002 ruling that the words "one nation under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance
are unconstitutional.</P>
<P>Over the past year, other House members have introduced bills to remove the
federal courts' jurisdiction over certain hot-button issues, such as school
prayer and gay marriage, putting such matters in the hands of state and local
judges who are often elected and can be held accountable. </P>
<P>In the wake of the Supreme Court ruling that outlawed capital punishment for
juveniles--one of the cases that has caused some activists to call for Justice
Anthony Kennedy's impeachment--some members have pushed for legislation
forbidding federal judges to base their rulings on foreign cases. </P>
<P>"In terms of the relationship between the judiciary and the Congress, this is
the most poisonous atmosphere in some 40 years," says Stephen Burbank, a
professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School.</P>
<P>That doesn't seem to be a worry for Scarborough. Neither does the fact that
there are many evangelical churches, even conservative ones, that think the
involvement of pastors in the filibuster fight is an inappropriate mixing of
church and state. </P>
<P>Scarborough is intent on saving the U.S. from "judicial tyranny"--so intent,
in fact, that he once ran his massive Dodge pickup off a country road because he
was distracted by the e-mails he was checking on his BlackBerry. </P>
<P>If he doesn't succeed, he insists, the consequences will be terrible,
especially for people of faith. "Where we are headed right now with separation
of church and state is that Christians will no longer be eligible to be involved
in political debate," he says. </P>
<P>Judging by his and other evangelical pastors' roles in the war over the
judiciary, the country is in no danger of getting there anytime soon.
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