-By Jim Hightower

February 14, 2011- When corporate executives needed a political favor, they used to run to Congress. Now they can also run to the courthouse.

Over the years, corporate chieftains and their political henchmen have steadily ensconced reliable laissez-faire ideologues in hundreds of federal judgeships, quietly creating a corporate-friendly path for moving their litigation all the way from the district level through the Supreme Court.

For example, in its effort to scuttle President Barack Obama's healthcare reform, the right wing has gone court shopping. They've filed their cases in the courts of judges who are known to be ideologically hostile to government regulation of health care corporations.

Take U.S. District Judge Henry Hudson in Virginia. On December 13, he ruled that a key provision of the new law is unconstitutional. His decision is at odds with 14 other federal judges who'd dismissed similar challenges. He had to resort to twisted reasoning to reach his verdict and keep the right wing's flawed case moving. But, hey–you can't let legal niceties get in the way of ideology.

Peek under Hudson's judicial robe and you'll find a naked partisan with a long career in hard-right Republican politics. A protégé of Ronald Regan and his detestable attorney general Ed Meese, Hudson ran unsuccessfully for a Virginia congressional seat in 1991. As consolation, he got two GOP political appointments in the state before George W. Bush put him on the federal bench in 2002.

FULL STORY HERE:

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