WASHINGTON, April 22 (UPI) -- Evangelical Christian leaders have discussed dealing with U.S. judges who don't rule with the conservatives' agenda, including the dissolution of some courts.
The Los Angeles Times reported Friday it obtained an audio tape of a March conference when conservative Christian leaders talked about their differences with certain judges. The newspaper said Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, a group opposed to the evangelicals' planned moves, provided the tape.
The tape indicates leaders such as Family Research Council President Tony Perkins and Focus on the Family founder James Dobson discussed having conservative judges placed on the bench and certain judges removed.
"Very few people know this, that the Congress can simply disenfranchise a court. They don't have to fire anybody or impeach anybody or go through that battle. All they have to do is say the 9th Circuit doesn't exist anymore and it's gone," Dobson says on the tape.
The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, based in California, has long been a thorn in the conservatives' side. It is one of the most liberal courts in the federal system but is also the most often overturned.
