Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource TomPaine.com Stories Description An account of the resource TomPaine.com -- a liberal advocacy organization -- distributed a public call on August 12, 2002 for 300 word "opinion advertisement" similar to those that the organization had been running regularly in the op-ed page of The New York Times. TomPaine.com received hundreds of submissions from the public, most of which the September 11 Digital Archive has preserved here. TomPaine Story TomPaine Story: Story "LESSONS LEARNED: THE IMPORTANCE OF THE FEDERAL COURTS","LESSONS LEARNED: THE IMPORTANCE OF THE FEDERAL COURTS A lesson we should be learning from the aftermath of September 11 is the importance of all federal courts, not just the Supreme Court, to the future of civil liberties. Ironically, President Bush has argued that the Senate should speedily confirm his right-wing judicial nominees lest empty seats on the federal trial and appellate courts compromise the war on terror. If anything, the novelty of the legal issues presented concerning the scope of government surveillance, military incarceration and trial, and secret detentions only intensifies the importance of scrutinizing lower court judges with painstaking care and due deliberation. The argument for speeding up lower court nominees is that, unlike the Supreme Court, lower courts only follow the law. They do not make it. That's hogwash. Lower court judges frequently face questions that cannot be decided on precedent alone. Trial judges are often required to exercise their ""sound discretion,"" which means that the Courts of Appeals typically defer to their factual findings and the Supreme Court does not interfere. Current challenges to the Adminstration's draconian policies prove the point. This is the most dangerous time since Vietnam to risk staffing the courts with judges more committed to ideology than civil liberties. Republicans helped create the extra vacancies they now hope to fill. Although President Clinton typically sent centrist judicial nominations to the Repubican Senate, Senate Republicans did not reciprocate the spirit of moderation. Instead, as documented in an American Judicature Society study, they subjected Clinton nominees to ""unprecedented delay in confirmation processes."" They hoped, in other words, to preserve an artificially high number of judicial vacancies that could later be filled with conservative Republicans. September 11 makes it especially important to rebuff such right-wing bullying. All courts help preserve our freedoms and must be staffed with utmost care. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource tp167.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2003-03-03