Reply #89: Thanks for this important point

[suffragette]

Thanks for posting this, Shance.

I didn't know about this episode, so read more about it after your post on it. How enlightening.
In looking at this action and at subsequent attempts to emulate it, there is an even clearer picture of Ford as a cog in the machine which grinds away at people's rights.

From http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=7119
Republican Congressmen led by future President Gerald Ford made several attempt to impeach the justice. Ford's efforts, which failed, were widely viewed as retaliation for the Senate's rejection of two of President Richard Nixon's Supreme Court nominees.

And what did Ford say about his reason for trying this:
http://www.orbstandard.com/News/Gerard/gene_gerard_judicial_impeachment_justice_william_douglas.html
When Congressman Ford was asked what was Douglas' offense, Ford
infamously responded by saying, "The only honest answer is whatever a majority
of the House of Representatives considers it to be at a given moment in
history."

An article in Time magazine from that time had a revealing analysis of the real motives:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,909119-4,00.html
If it works, the ultimate goal is to force the Senate to vote on Douglas shortly before Election Day next fall. The purpose: to embarrass Senate liberals who are running for re-election and would presumably find it difficult to vote for the "immoral" Douglas no matter how they themselves regarded the charges against him.

So, since they disagreed with Douglas' rulings about individual rights, privacy, conservation and corporate responsibility but couldn't take him on over that, they tried to go after him on flimsy moral insinuations and take him and his influence down that way, as well as trying to intimidate others to cooperate so they wouldn't be smeared during their campaigns. Sound familiar?

If that isn't enough, here's a modern parallel to that action that shows the same pattern of behavior:
http://www.orbstandard.com/News/Gerard/gene_gerard_judicial_impeachment_justice_william_douglas.html

At a recent conservative political conference on the judiciary, Phyllis
Schlafly, founder of the conservative women's group Eagle Forum, stated that
since Justice Kennedy ruled against the death penalty for juveniles, this "is a
good ground for impeachment."  Michael P. Farris, chairman of the Home School
Legal Defense, stated, "If our congressman and senators do not have the courage
to impeach and remove from office Justice Kennedy, they out to be impeached as
well." And constitutional lawyer Edwin Vieira called for Kennedy's impeachment,
stating that his ruling in the consensual sex case supported "satanic principles
drawn from foreign law." Both Tom DeLay and Republican Congressman Todd Tiahrt
of Kansas have supported impeaching Kennedy.

Basically the same play with newer, and more obvious, players.

Ford was no healer in my book and having an amiable aspect does not excuse his calculated actions.