Governing from the bench

Are the People (via their elected representatives) still in charge of the United States, or is the judiciary? I ask (testily) because of another Court decision upholding the sanctity of partial-birth abortion, this one 3-0 in Nebraska. I just consider it breathtaking arrogance for a court to say that the citizens and the legislature do not have the power to make infanticide illegal.

Before you throw down and argue with me, I'll do you a favor and clue you in on where I stand. Do I think an embryo is a person, deserving of legal protection? No. Do I think a full-term baby is a "person" right before birth? You bet I do. Where do I draw the line? There's the difficult part, but I won't dodge it. If I must go black & white, all & nothing, I grant legal protection when the cerebral cortex has matured and differentiated from the rest of the brain. From my perspective, from that point on you have a human there with its own distict identity.

Of course, nearly all the fighting arises over disagreements about where this line is, or should be. Settle that, and not only is abortion settled, but so is fetal homicide, stem cell research, and about a half-dozen other sticky issues.