Robertson Clarifies Supreme Court Remarks

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AP/July 17, 2003
By Sonja Barisic

Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson said Thursday he was not talking about any particular Supreme Court justices when he asked his television audience to pray that three liberal justices retire.

"I don't care which three, I mean as long as the three conservatives stay on," Robertson told reporters after an event at Regent University, which he leads as president and chancellor. "There's six liberals, so it's up to the Lord.

"I'm not telling God what to do," he added. "I'm just saying, 'Lord, help us.'"

Robertson, as host of "The 700 Club" on his Christian Broadcasting Network, earlier this month began the 21-day "Operation Supreme Court Freedom." He is asking people to pray to God to change the court after its 6-3 decision in June that decriminalized sodomy.

Robertson said in a letter posted on CBN's Web site that the ruling "has opened the door to homosexual marriage, bigamy, legalized prostitution and even incest."

Robertson's letter did not identify anyone, but appeared to refer to specific justices, saying: "One justice is 83 years old, another has cancer, and another has a heart condition. Would it not be possible for God to put it in the minds of these three judges that the time has come to retire?"

Justice John Paul Stevens was born in 1920 and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had colon cancer surgery in 1999. The reference to the third jurist was unclear.