The more I read about how Judge Janice Rogers Brown’s views are “outside the mainstream”, with the mainstream apparently represented by the economic views of Ted Kennedy and friends, the more I understand why President Bush nominated her.

She is a champion of property rights and an opponent of the Nanny State, both of which directly oppose the position of today’s Democratic Party.

Here are the bullet points from Ted Kennedy’s web site regarding Brown’s dangerous opinions:

• A 1999 dissent drafted by Brown suggested that the First Amendment allows employees to use racial epithets in the workplace;
• A Brown decision would have barred administrative agencies from awarding compensatory damages in race discrimination cases;
• A Brown opinion would have struck down a law requiring paint companies to help fund treatment of children exposed to lead paint;
• Brown told a meeting of the Federalist Society that “where government moves in, community retreats [and] civil society disintegrates”;
• Brown has said that government leads to “families under siege, war in the streets…”
• Brown said that “when government advances, freedom is imperiled [and] civilization itself jeopardized.”
• Brown told an audience that people of faith were embroiled in a “war” against secular humanists who threatened to divorce America from its religious roots.

While I’m not entirely comfortable with the last bullet point, each of the other points strike me as a reason to cheer for Judge Brown rather than oppose her.

Another quote which Kennedy seems to dislike: “In the New Deal/Great Society era, a rule that was the polar opposite of the classical era of American law reigned ... Protection of property was a major casualty of the Revolution of 1937 … Rights were reordered and property acquired a second class status ... It thus became government’s job not to protect property but, rather, to regulate and redistribute it. And, the epic proportions of the disaster which has befallen millions of people during the ensuing decades has not altered our fervent commitment to statism.” [“Fifty Ways To Lose Your Freedom,” Speech to The Institute for Justice (August 12, 2000)]

The only problem I find when reading this is that we have so many politicians who disagree with it or at least won't admit it. The New Deal was America’s dipping its toe in the water of socialism. Thanks and congratulations are due to Janice Rogers Brown for being willing to say so.

We are in desperate need of Supreme Court judges who understand that the Constitution means what it says and not what a Justice wants it to say. We are in desperate need of Justices who understand that the foundation of our economy and thus our society is property rights.

Since Democratic political power comes from control of others’ property, it’s not surprising that they bitterly oppose Justice Brown. And it’s all the more reason that lovers of liberty and free markets should support her.