More opposition to Leah Sears

I was shocked at the Washington Post's above the fold front-page story last Sunday about Georgia Supreme Court Justice Leah Sears as a possible nominee for the US Supreme Court. I have blogged twice in the past about Justice Sears's unsuitability.

I sent a letter to the Post, which they did not publish, so I'm posting it here:

Leah Sears doesn’t belong on the US Supreme Court, and it’s not because of her relationship with Justice Clarence Thomas (Front page, May 10, 2009). It’s because she used her position as Chief Justice of the Georgia Supreme Court to further an ideological position that bodes ill for her judgment. Justice Sears is a board member of the Institute for American Values, an organization whose publications consistently argue that family forms other than a married mother and father threaten child well-being and the very fabric of society. Last year, she arranged for the Georgia Supreme Court to co-host a two-day, public conference with IAV, thus giving an official, state imprimatur to a highly contested viewpoint with enormous implications for public policy. The conference excluded eminent researchers and academics whose views diverge from those of IAV about what causes bad child outcomes and where to look for solutions. The program was dominated by opponents of gay and lesbian parents and/or marriage for same-sex couples. Justice Sears had no business aligning her court with one side of a controversial family policy agenda. That disqualifies her from serving on the US Supreme Court.

Georgia Equality spoke out against Justice Sears today because she is planning to "join" the Institute for American Values when she leaves the court, but she is already a board member of the organization, so I would say she joined them long ago! Thank you, Jeff Graham of Georgia Equality, for getting great press coverage on why Justice Sears does not belong on the Supreme Court.