Aug. 15, 2005, 1:00PM

DeLay charges left unduly influences Supreme Court
House majority leader keeps heat on federal bench

By SAMANTHA LEVINE
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle

NASHVILLE, TENN. - House Majority Leader Tom DeLay charged Sunday night in a rally at an evangelical church that the "out-of-touch" political left has dangerously and unduly influenced the U.S. Supreme Court.

DeLay was among the dozen speakers at "Justice Sunday II: God Save the United States and this Honorable Court," organized by the Family Research Council and its leader, Tony Perkins. The event was broadcast nationwide by a Christian satellite service.

To occasional shouts of "Amen!" from the audience, DeLay said arguments for same-sex marriage, for instance, have no basis in the Constitution and represent "the frustrated imagination of an out-of-touch political movement whose world view the American people simply will not endorse."

The high court has not allowed same-sex marriages, but opponents of gay rights were alarmed when the court struck down the Texas sodomy law after it was used to prosecute two Houston-area gay men.

DeLay, a born-again Christian, said there is "a movement of judicial activism — principally but not exclusively of the political left — that has found the public will increasingly inconvenient to its designs."

In front of a crowd of roughly 2,100 people, short of the 3,000 tickets that were distributed in Nashville-area churches, the Republican congressman from Sugar Land said the "policies this movement supports simply cannot hope to be passed into law by the democratic process."

DeLay's comments at the Two Rivers Baptist Church fit with his continued criticism of the federal bench. This spring, DeLay said the judges who refused to intervene in the case of brain-damaged Florida woman Terri Schiavo, as he wished, would have to "answer for for their behavior." He has vowed to increase congressional oversight of the federal judiciary.

Perkins said the purpose of Justice Sunday II was to tell Christians that the court has overstepped its bounds and urge them to lobby for new justices who won't set down "radical public policy."

Perkins insisted, however, that the rally was not meant to build support for President Bush's Supreme Court nominee, John Roberts, who would replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

But with partisan tensions rising in advance of Roberts' confirmation hearings, which are set to begin in the Senate Judiciary Committee when Congress reconvenes next month, the timing was hardly coincidental.

Focus on the Family founder Dr. James Dobson said in videotaped remarks that although Roberts' judicial philosophy would only be known once he was on the job, "for now, at least, he looks good."

"We need to defend his nomination," Dobson said, noting that the Supreme Court will soon take up issues including prayer in the schools and physician-assisted suicide.

U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., a Methodist minister, was one of several religious leaders who spoke out against Justice Sunday II in advance.

"It is one of the most startling and painful realities of serving in Congress these days because it is said over and over and over again that people don't have faith if they disagree," he said last week.