Archive for the 'Judiciary' Category

Putting the money back into politics

September 10, 2009

The Supreme Court has signaled that it may overturn parts of campaign finance reform, a.k.a. McCain-Feingold, which the GOP senselessly passed into law several years ago. John McCain must be mortified. After all, the intended purpose of CFR was to get the money out of politics. And, as we all know, CFR indeed succeeded in [...]

I don’t want to hear Senator Lindsey Grahamnesty complain about judicial activism ever again

July 22, 2009

GOP Sen. Graham says he will vote for Sotomayor – Yahoo! News

White male conservative DNA

July 16, 2009

You didn’t hear about this from the mainstream press, but Senator Dick Durbin took a detestable slap at white men by declaring, during the Sotomayor hearing, that white male conservatives are inherently racist.
DURBIN: When we asked questions of the white, male nominees of a Republican president we were basically trying to find out whether, uhhh…to [...]

What’s so difficult about the Second Amendment?

July 15, 2009

Senator Tom Coburn nailed Hispanic Sotomayor squarely between the eyes on the issue of gun rights. On the one hand, Hispanic Sotomayor says abortion rights is “settled law,” even though there’s nothing in the Constitution that supports Roe v. Wade. On the other hand, she isn’t too crazy about the right to bear arms, even [...]

Bias? Whoever would have thought that?

July 14, 2009

In reading Hispanic Sotomayor’s statements from yesterday and today, I feel like I’m reading President Obama. Like the president, she means the opposite of what she says.
Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor firmly denied racial bias Tuesday at her Senate confirmation hearing and said an oft-criticized remark about her Hispanic heritage affecting judicial decisions was a [...]

Playing hard ball

July 14, 2009

Senator Jeff Sessions is going after Hispanic Sotomayor and her sudden discovery of judicial impartiality. The best way to confront Hispanic Sotomayor is with her own previous statements, which is exactly Senator Sessions’ approach.
“I think it’s consistent in the comments I’ve quoted to you and your previous statements that you do believe that your background [...]

Hispanic Sotomayor faces the Senate

July 14, 2009

On her first day of questioning before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Hispanic Sotomayor vowed impartiality if she’s confirmed to the Supreme Court. This would represent a significant departure from her previous judicial philosophy of empathy. It was none other than Hispanic Sotomayor who said back in 2001, “Our experiences as women and people of color [...]

What’s good for the goose

June 20, 2009

Normally, I couldn’t care less that Hispanic Sotomayor belongs to an all-women’s organization. If you want to do that, it’s your business. If a man wants to belong to an all-men’s club, likewise, I don’t see where there’s a problem. But Democrats are all about diversity and inclusion, and recoil at exclusive organizations (unless it’s the [...]

Short memories

June 3, 2009

Democrats, the mainstream press, and many limp-wristed “moderate” Republicans are lamenting “attacks” that are being made against Sonia Sotomayor, known as Hispanic Sotomayor by the media. Do they not remember the savage attacks that the left made against Samuel Alito, John Roberts, Clarence Thomas, and Robert Bork. I guess not. What is being said about [...]

No do-overs

May 29, 2009

President Obama is standing behind his Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor after she has come under scrutiny for a racist, anti-male statement she made 8 years ago.
President Barack Obama on Friday personally sought to deflect criticism of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, who finds herself under intensifying scrutiny for saying in 2001 that a female [...]

Really, is there anyone out there who seriously doubts that Sonia Sotomayor is pro-choice?

May 28, 2009

Sotomayor’s views on abortion rights are unknown – Yahoo! News.

With liberals, most everything is about race

May 28, 2009

When Republicans nominated such esteemed jurists as Clarence Thomas, Alberto Gonzales, Miguel Estrada, and Janice Rogers Brown, Democrats obstructed them all, and they got away with it without being labeled as racists. If conservatives oppose Sonia Sotomayor — and I hope they do – look for the left to play the race card, even though our obstruction [...]

Identity politics

May 27, 2009

The headline says it all. Barack Obama has nominated a far left judicial activist, Sonia Sotomayor, to the Supreme Court. No surprise there. We’ll deal with her judicial philosophy later. But her nomination itself illustrates a fundamental difference between liberals and conservatives. Liberals, who claim to be colorblind, nonetheless see people as members of a group. Conservatives [...]

Racial profiling

May 2, 2009

George H.W. Bush’s biggest mistake as president was going back on his no new taxes pledge. His second-biggest mistake — and you could make an argument for #1 here – was nominating David Souter to the Supreme Court. Justice Souter turned out to be as much a liberal as Justices Breyer and Ginsberg that President Clinton [...]

Today’s Lebanon Democrat column: “Ford forced to flip-flop”

September 12, 2006

On June 23, 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down perhaps the worst decision it has rendered in some time. In Kelo v. City of New London, the court, in a 5-4 split, gave its blessing to local governments that use the power of eminent domain to seize the property of landowners and turn that [...]

Judge Clara Byrd

July 25, 2006

I have to say that I have never gotten as many e-mails or impassioned comments about anything or anyone as I have received the last two weeks regarding Judge Clara Byrd. One reader wrote a long, heart-breaking story about his/her experience with the judge. Another reader asked why I haven’t written about Judge Byrd in [...]

Doing homework

July 15, 2006

One of my local readers has forwarded along some information on one of the incumbent judges up for re-election this August, Clara Byrd. The reader notes that her appellate record is abysmal, with 49% of her cases being modified or reversed. Most judges, I am told, run in the 10-20% reversal range. A line item [...]

The right to protest

February 28, 2006

The Supreme Court has overturned the foolish practice of using federal extortion and racketeering laws to ban abortion demonstrations.

Today’s Lebanon Democrat column: “Liberals panic at Alito hearing”

January 19, 2006

A four-day grandstanding event disguised as a confirmation hearing on behalf of Samuel Alito, nominee to the Supreme Court, came to a remarkable end last Thursday. A bunch of lightweight Senate Democrats showed the rest of the nation just how panicked they have become in attempting — and failing — to wrest Mr. Alito from [...]

Why don’t states’ rights trump Roe v. Wade?

January 17, 2006

The Supreme Court has upheld Oregon’s assisted suicide law. So with assisted suicide, states have the right to form their own laws, but in Roe v. Wade, they don’t. The inconsistency is difficult to ignore, unless, of course, you see the issue in terms of political ideology, then it makes perfect sense. The left (a.k.a. [...]