Jesse Sees High Court Coup

According to Reuters news service:

As evidence, the civil rights agitator offered a clipping from Newsweek magazine that sought to cast a cloud of bias on Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, giving Bush, the Republican candidate, his favorable 5-4 decision by the high court.

The magazine, which itself has been accused of biased coverage in favor of Democratic Vice President Al Gore, whom Bush defeated, reported that she became upset during an election night party upon hearing Florida was first called for Gore, exclaiming, "This is terrible!"

Now 70, she was Republican majority leader of the Arizona Senate before her appointment to the Supreme Court by President Ronald Reagan in 1981.

Jackson also accused a fellow black, Justice Clarence Thomas, of bias because his wife, who works for a conservative think tank, the Heritage Foundation, had supported the Bush campaign.

Thomas was nominated in 1991 for the court by President George Bush, the president-elect's father.

Because the two justices did not recuse themselves, Jackson charged: "What we have is a coup d'etat led by the U.S. Supreme Court."

At a meeting in Los Angeles with religious and civil rights activists, Jackson, who lost a bid for the Democratic Party nomination for president in 1988, also alleged a right-wing conspiracy that intentionally excluded blacks, Holocaust victims, college students and others from the voting process.

He promised protest marches around federal buildings throughout the country, beginning Jan. 15, birthday of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., and continuing until Bush's inauguration Jan. 20.