My Kind of a Judge!!

In this day of activist judges, it is refreshing to find one that DOESN'T want to make the law, just interpret it. And then combine that with one that doesn't buy into the Global Warming bunk, and you have an ideal judge.

NEW YORK -- A federal judge expressed reluctance about beginning judicial oversight of pollution issues that affect global warming as she heard arguments Friday on a lawsuit brought by Connecticut and several other states against some of the nation's largest power companies.

"Why should I do something that Congress and the president have decided they don't want to do as a matter of policy?" Judge Loretta Preska asked lawyers for eight states which brought the action last year against five power companies.

"What is to keep other states from bringing actions against other companies and then we have a hodgepodge?" she said. "We might have federal courts all over the country imposing different mandatory caps on different utilities all over the place."

The plaintiffs have asked Preska to order the companies to reduce carbon dioxide emissions 3 percent annually for 10 years, saying the greenhouse gas is one of the chief causes of global warming. The gas is produced when coal, gasoline and other fossil fuels burn.

Climatologists say continued temperature increases will cause rising tides, droughts and other climate disruptions if nothing is done.

Preska said she doubted that any ruling she could issue against the power companies would have much effect on global warming.

"All it does is slow it down. Unless something else is done, it won't reduce the threat," she said. "It doesn't sound like anything I do here or Congress does is going to make any difference."

Peter Lehner, a lawyer for the state of New York, told the judge she was only being asked to reduce the emission of pollutants by five companies, not to solve the global warming danger facing the country.

At one point, the judge seemed to dismiss the notion that there was an immediate threat from warmer temperatures.

"Where's the injury?" she asked. "It's a little hotter. Well, in winter that's a good thing."

Here we have a judge that isn't jumping on the bandwagon to castigate Big Business for the Global Warming "Threat". And in addition she understands that the President and Congress make policy, not judges. I say Bush ought to nominate her for a Supreme Court seat, because she is no nonsense, knows the function of the judicial system, and has a sense of humor. Preska for Supreme Court!! Preska for Supreme Court!!


Mr Minority