Janice Rogers Brown refuses to conduct herself under a cloister while milquetoast Republicans and hostile Democrats hold her career hostage for over two years and counting. The Los Angeles Times reports that Brown told an audience on Sunday that a cultural battle has formed in which people of faith face punishment from secularists for their beliefs:

Just days after a bitterly divided Senate committee voted along party lines to approve her nomination as a federal appellate court judge, California Supreme Court Justice Janice Rogers Brown told an audience Sunday that people of faith were embroiled in a "war" against secular humanists who threatened to divorce America from its religious roots, according to a newspaper account of the speech. ...

"These are perilous times for people of faith," she said, "not in the sense that we are going to lose our lives, but in the sense that it will cost you something if you are a person of faith who stands up for what you believe in and say those things out loud." ...

The Advocate quoted Brown as lamenting that America had moved away from the religious traditions on which it was founded.

"When we move away from that, we change our whole conception of the most significant idea that America has to offer, which is this idea of human freedom and this notion of liberty," she said.

She added that atheism "handed human destiny over to the great god, autonomy, and this is quite a different idea of freedom…. Freedom then becomes willfulness."

Of course, the folks at PFAW and others already aligned against Brown will use this speech to claim that she is an extremist, one much too dangerous to put on a federal appellate bench. They might have a difficult time convincing the overwhelming majority of people who attend religious services on a regular basis that believing in God makes one an extremist, but they will do their best to do so nonetheless. When they do, they will go further in proving Brown's point than she dared to go herself.

In fact, Brown's speech serves as a perfect test for Ralph Neas and Nan Aron. Her implication that faith has become a litmus test for political appointments practically dares her opposition to use it against her politically over the next two weeks. If the Democrats start quoting from the speech in debating her confirmation, then the flimsy pretense of Chuck Schumer's "deeply held personal beliefs" will have been finally stripped away from their arguments. Brown has upped the ante by forcing the Democrats to attack her faith and her philosophical underpinnings.

The Democrats won't hesitate to use it, of course, and in doing so they will have demonstrated precisely what she argued -- that people of faith cannot hope to be treated equally with secular athiests by the political elite of the Left.

I think Justice Brown may have more political savvy than we realized. Not only has she proven herself an excellent jurist, but she has courage and wit. She will not remain silent while her enemies unfairly trash her reputation and her record. If our appellate courts do not have room for a Janice Rogers Brown, then it only reflects the unworthiness of the people entrusted to confirm her into that position. If the Republicans cannot muster the votes to defend her nomination, then we all should be ashamed of ourselves for putting them in those seats.

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» Faith 'War' Rages in U.S., Judge Says from Don Singleton
The left refers to this as jihad, but that just shows how irreligious they are Jihad is Islam declaring war on Christians. This is war between religion and Secular Humanism. [Read More]

Tracked on April 26, 2005 10:54 AM

» Plain Speaking from Wilson Fu Weblog
Captain Ed has a bit on judicial nominee Janice Rogers Brown. She throws down the glove and sets up a scenario where the liberals may hoist themselves on their own petard, judicial litmus tests. This one is the religious one being used by the liberal... [Read More]

Tracked on April 26, 2005 12:32 PM

» Justice Brown speaks out... from The Unalienable Right
...the radical secularist left doesn't like it: The Los Angeles Times provides quotes from a recent talk by California Supreme Court Justice Janice Rogers Brown about the opposition to people of faith participating in public life by many on the left... [Read More]

Tracked on April 26, 2005 12:43 PM