In Defense of the ‘Litmus Test’

The judicial plank of this year’s Republican Platform, committing the GOP to work for the appointment of judges “who respect traditional family values and the sanctity of innocent human life,” has met with expressions of horror. It unbottles an ideological sorting demon, the denunciation goes, separating those worthy of judicial office in a Reagan Administration from those unworthy, not on the ground of merit but of belief. Since the plank was approved by a large majority of the Convention, there must be people willing to defend it. So far, though, they’ve been tongue-tied. Unless they snap out of it, the attack will succeed by default, leaving the Republican Party embarrassed by its apparent affront to the independence of the federal judiciary.

That would be regrettable. The judicial plank of the Republican Platform is too important to pass over in silence. If Republicans won’t speak up for it, let a Democrat—a Democrat, moreover, who thinks the Supreme Court decided the abortion cases correctly.

IY

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Irving Younger

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Alexis de Tocqueville

The judicial plank of this year’s Republican Platform, committing the GOP to work for the appointment of judges “who respect traditional family values and the sanctity of innocent human life,” has met with expressions of horror. It unbottles an ideological sorting demon, the denunciation goes, separating those worthy of judicial office in a Reagan Administration from those unworthy, not on the ground of merit but of belief. Since the plank was approved by a large majority of the Convention, there must be people willing to defend it. So far, though, they’ve been tongue-tied. Unless they snap out of it, the attack will succeed by default, leaving the Republican Party embarrassed by its apparent affront to the independence of the federal judiciary.

That would be regrettable. The judicial plank of the Republican Platform is too important to pass over in silence. If Republicans won’t speak up for it, let a Democrat—a Democrat, moreover, who thinks the Supreme Court decided the abortion cases correctly.