Edgar Allen Beem, in his July 16 column “The Supreme Court Is Against My Religion,” stated that the activist judges on the Supreme Court, in the Hobby Lobby case, gave a victory to corporate America and dealt the people of this country a grave injustice. I find it interesting he mentioned the phrases Corporate America and corporate stooges, two negatively charged phrases, in reference to the justices as he insinuates their complicity with conservatives in conspiring against common-man America. I’m just curious, were they conservative stooges when they struck down the Defense of Marriage Act?

Are federal and state judiciary guilty of conservative activism when they overturn state after state voter-mandated statutes in favor of liberal agendas? The overturning of California’s Proposition 8 could be said to have been caused by liberal activism as well as purposeful government inactivity and indifference. Beem’s statement concerning political appointees engaging in partisan agendas is certainly true, and it may be said that the progressives are close to cornering the market on that one.

Beem goes on to quote Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who plays the slippery slope card of what-ifs, which includes references to the pseudo-religions Jehovah’s Witnesses and Scientology. Beem follows the Ginsburg quote with ludicrous slippery slope references of his own: “… Minimum wage? Against my religion. Labor unions? Against my religion. OSHA regulations? Against my religion.”

I don’t think Breem was serious with his examples, but I do believe he used them, trying for a negative satirical effect.

Robert Hayes
Portland