LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A federal judge yesterday offered to let a medical specialist help him decide a case challenging the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act to dispel possible perceptions of bias toward the plaintiffs.
U.S. District Judge Richard Kopf made the announcement from the bench as the Justice Department was preparing to call its last witness in the case.
Judge Kopf said he would be willing to work with both sides to appoint an outside expert to help decide the case after all testimony in the trial is heard. He said he would discuss his proposition with lawyers from both sides after testimony ended yesterday.
In offering to have an expert help him, Judge Kopf noted comments earlier this week by Rep. Steve King that activist judges were using their positions to impose their personal views on the rest of society.
Mr. King, an Iowa Republican who sat in on testimony Monday, said outside the courthouse that the nation must re-establish the separation of judicial and legislative powers.
“Congress determined that a partial-birth abortion is never necessary to protect the health of the mother,” said Mr. King, a member of the House Judiciary Committee. “I don’t think it’s possible for a single judge to sit in a courtroom and substitute his findings for the findings of 435 congressmen.”
The abortion ban was signed last year by President Bush but has not been enforced because judges in Lincoln, New York and San Francisco agreed to hear evidence in three simultaneous non-jury trials on whether it violates the Constitution.
“We’ve got activist judges all over the country,” Mr. King said. “We need to rein in the runaway judiciary. Let the people speak.”
Judge Kopf said he wanted to be as fair as possible in handling the case.
“I want to do this matter as straight up as I can. I have no inclination one way or another how this thing turns but … I want to dispel any notion that this court … has some agenda other than finding the facts truthfully,” Judge Kopf said.
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