In the circumstances, therefore, there is actually more to be said in favor of the approach of Senator Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. He has submitted a bill which would appropriate $2 million a year to a Judicial Education Fund, which would provide about $2,000 apiece to each federal judge to reimburse expenses involved in attending educational seminars. There are various problems with Leahy's bill, but none that can't be corrected.
Meanwhile, however, the CRC's systematic defamation of judges who attend such seminars deserves to be slapped down. There is nothing in the least improper about them. The Judicial Conference of the United States actively encourages judges to enhance their formal legal education.
Moreover, the CRC is curiously selective about which seminars it condemns. The Aspen Institute sponsors a series of "Justice and Society Seminars" that don't elicit a peep from Soros and the CRC. Perhaps that's because they claim to discuss such issues as "the breakdown of long-established hierarchies of race and gender," and read a special collection of writings, including works by John Rawls and The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Seminar "moderators" have included Supreme Court Justices Harry A. Blackmun, William J. Brennan, Jr., John Paul Stevens and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. You get the picture.
In their off hours, the participants can "enjoy Aspen's beautiful setting in the Rocky Mountains, work out in the well equipped health center, or join in afternoon activities such as white-water rafting, hiking, tennis and horseback riding. Evening activities include The Aspen Music Festival, BalletAspen, public lectures and films."
Why isn't Soros outraged?