Removal of Iowa judges because of a ruling that displeased the anti-gay crowd is beyond chilling

Gay marriage is legal in Iowa and three of the Iowa judges who helped reach that unanimous decision had the great misfortune to be up for reelection this month. And guess what happened? Yep, that's right, the anti-gay bully crowd organized, gathered tons of out-of-state money to pour into Iowa, and campaigned diligently to "oust" them for daring to protect the rights of a minority against the mob rule of a majority.

This story is chilling. By the time something goes to court, we are pretty much assured that there will be one side that is not happy with the outcome. One need only look to the founding fathers' intent to know that the courts are there to protect the rights of a minority against the majority, which in my mind weakens the argument that "the people have spoken" as is so commonly used by people when working to deny certain minorities rights everyone else enjoys. How many times in history have we seen situations where the people have spoken and the courts ruling against "the people's" supposed mandate? Blacks, women, and many other minorities have all benefited greatly from court decisions that were very unpopular at the time. This is not a situation where activist judges are ignoring the will of the people, this is an independent court system working to insure the rights of a minority, or in other words, doing the job the founding fathers intended them to do. The thought of a court system that is punished for doing their jobs if they should decide against a group of bullies is so frightening I cannot even think about it.

This is nothing more than a group of religious right bullies working diligently to make sure that judges in the future will be less likely to make rulings based on the constitution because of the fear they could lose their jobs. Do we really want a judiciary that is more likely to rule according to the whims of those with a bible and a bully pulpit? And for anyone who thinks this is strictly a gay issue and it could never affect them - think again. These religious nutcases want inside our bedrooms, our medicine cabinets, our family planning decisions, and in between our doctors and us when it comes to making any medical decisions. NO, they are definitely not done, they are only just beginning. Don't kid yourselves.