The United States Constitution states that federal judges "shall hold their offices during good behavior," which means life appointments unless they misbehave. A glaring example of judicial misbehavior occurred when the 3-judge panel of the federal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals committed an illegal act and practiced political activism by deciding that the recall election against California Governor Gray Davis must be delayed -- obviously to assist Davis in beating the recall -- even though the election was underway and hundreds of thousands of absentee ballots had already been cast.

The blatant misbehavior of the appellate court judges was unanimously confirmed by an 11-member panel of the same 9th Circuit, who quickly overturned their colleagues' illegal decision of stopping an election in progress.

This is nothing new for the federal courts, particularly the 9th Circuit, who has been overturned by the Supreme Court more than all the other circuits combined. Federal judicial activism has been going on at an increasing, alarming rate and nothing is being done about it.

Indeed, the three 9th Circuit offenders should be impeached and removed from the bench, along with the two federal district judges in Oklahoma and Colorado who -- less than a week before it was to go into effect -- voided recent federal law providing enforcement for a growing "Do Not Call" list of over 50 million Americans who signed up for relief from the unrelenting assaults by telemarketing invaders. Free commercial speech simply cannot override the home-privacy of millions of people who choose not to be bothered by commercial pests who go judge-shopping to get what they want.

DDC