Editorial assailing Sensenbrenner’s meddling

The editorial pages have started to discuss the remarkable letters that House Judiciary Chairman James Sensenbrenner wrote to the Chief Judge of the Seventh Circuit and to AG Alberto Gonzales concerning the decision in US v. Rivera (background here, commentary here and here).  Here’s a selection from this editorial coming from the Freeport (Ill.) Journal Standard:

The issue: Sensenbrenner’s mucking around in the courts

Our view: Congress should not be trying to intimidate the judiciary.

The Chicago Tribune exclusive [about Sensenbrenner’s letters] on the paper’s front page last Sunday was chilling, and spoke to the current threat posed to our Constitutional guarantee of the separation of powers…. It’s as if a politician like Sensenbrenner assumes he knows better than, well, just about everyone.

Imagine if a legislator wrote the court seeking a lighter sentence for the drug courier?  He’d be hung from the highest tree for interfering with the due process of law and justice.

Sensenbrenner’s war against the judicial branch is well-documented and wrong-headed…. Sensenbrenner and his allies in Congress are out to intimidate the judiciary into doing their bidding.  Sounds like a different and dangerous kind of judicial activism to us.