Oaks and the Utah Supreme Court

[2bizE]

I’m losing my faith in the Utah Supreme Court. Let me explain. To think that someone as biased, racist, sexist, and hate filled as Oaks could ever be a Supreme Court justice completely leaves me perplexed. Utah is so much better not to have Oaks on the Supreme Court. Can you imaging is rulings today? I can’t. To think that someone like him could rise to a position of civil power causes me to think that others could do the same thing. Do we have anyone like Oaks currently serving on the Utah Supreme Court?

[Just This Guy]

I do not follow Utah politics, but I will offer a few observations.

A position like a judge tends to temper their personal views to a good degree. With law, everything you do has to be based on established laws and case histories. Plus you have various levels of over sight and other checks and balances.

A state supreme court Justice can't rule strictly based on their personal beliefs. They must be able to document and defend their position. The Federal level courts can and will overrule them if they get out of line. Plus the judges themselves are subject to voter removal if they get out of hand. On top of that, they also have to report to the Bar Association which can revoke their ability to practice law if the need arose.* That's not to say that a person's personal bias won't creap in, but it take a lot of work and is usually kept in check.

As a sitting judge, Oaks would have had to manage his bias. However, since retiring and going to church employment, he now no longer has any of the same checks and balances to hold him back. It is likely he was more moderate when employed, but without the contraints, he had moved more and more extreme over the years.

So I would consider DHO's time as a judge to be separate from his time in the church. Have you looked at his actual time as judge and what does his ruling history look like? Did he actually act with bias as a judge?

* In the case of the Martinsburg, WV abuse case, one judge got a major centure for allowing the some of the stuff from LDSInc. to go through. Came close to loosing his job.

[alas]

I’m losing my faith in the Utah Supreme Court. Let me explain. To think that someone as biased, racist, sexist, and hate filled as Oaks could ever be a Supreme Court justice completely leaves me perplexed. Utah is so much better not to have Oaks on the Supreme Court. Can you imaging is rulings today? I can’t. To think that someone like him could rise to a position of civil power causes me to think that others could do the same thing. Do we have anyone like Oaks currently serving on the Utah Supreme Court?

I don’t know, we just got two very biased judges on the USSC and some people are hoping that they rule according to those biases rather than on previous court rulings.

[Not Buying It]

I’m losing my faith in the Utah Supreme Court. Let me explain. To think that someone as biased, racist, sexist, and hate filled as Oaks could ever be a Supreme Court justice completely leaves me perplexed. Utah is so much better not to have Oaks on the Supreme Court. Can you imaging is rulings today? I can’t. To think that someone like him could rise to a position of civil power causes me to think that others could do the same thing. Do we have anyone like Oaks currently serving on the Utah Supreme Court?

I don’t know, we just got two very biased judges on the USSC and some people are hoping that they rule according to those biases rather than on previous court rulings.

Those judges were chosen for that express purpose. I'm pretty sure they are aware of that also.

[Red Ryder]

It’s hard to know what would have happened had Oaks stayed as a civilian vs becoming a GA.

I imagine the church weighed this out when calling him to church leadership. But then again, it seems any Mormon who finds themselves in a position of power would still automatically be bound to the church agenda based solely on temple covenants.

Romney would have been an interesting experiment in 2012.

[lostinmiddlemormonism]

If Oaks is an example of what God is, then he is also a reason for not wanting to go where God dwells.