Senate GOP NO Activist

May 19, 2011 by Editor Fred D

It is on again. This time it appears that the “Gang of 14” will not be together to stop it. The “Gang of 14” were 14 Senators that agreed to vote on judicial nominees. Seven of each from both parties signed an agreement for the 109th Congress.

Now comes Obama’s nomination of the controversial University of California-Berkeley law professor Goodwin Liu, for appointment to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Among Liu’s many faults, you may remember, are the accusations that he favors the use of international law in ruling. Senior Republicans are urging their conference colleagues to support a GOP-led filibuster.

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) in a letter to Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Judiciary Committee Chairman, wrote “Mr. Liu  has failed to disclose as many as 117 speeches and articles to the Judiciary Committee prior to the hearing, and members need time to review these newly discovered submissions in order to ensure that there are no further omissions.” Sen. McCain continues “In order for any member…to meet their constitutional obligation to provide “advice and consent”… the nominee must provide complete and forthright access… This Administration has been a vocal advocate for “sunshine in government,” and I would expect that the Administration would share members’ concerns…” As this is the second time that Liu as been nominated, these documents should have been disclosed the first time.

Liu has made some rather provocative states here are a few from the Wall Street Journal April 17, 2010 article “Berkeley’s Judge, ” see bullet list below:

• …[the] Berkeley law school professor is a prototype for those who believe the Constitution should be read to reflect what he has called the “evolving norms and social understandings of our country.”

• …Mr. Liu’s judicial philosophy wouldn’t be familiar to the Framers, it is de rigueur in the elite colleges and law schools from which he hails. Speaking of the nomination of now Chief Justice John Roberts, Mr. Liu opined that words like “‘free enterprise,’ ‘private ownership of property,’ and ‘limited government’” are “code words for an ideological agenda hostile to environmental, workplace, and consumer protections.”

• On the nomination of now-Justice Samuel Alito, Professor Liu was even nastier. In a statement reminiscent of Ted Kennedy’s slur against Robert Bork, Mr. Liu wrote that “Judge Alito’s record envisions an America where police may shoot and kill an unarmed boy to stop him from running away with a stolen purse; where federal agents may point guns at ordinary citizens during a raid, even after no sign of resistance . . . where a black man may be sentenced to death by an all-white jury for killing a white man . . . and where police may search what a warrant permits, and then some.”

• Such statements included “unnecessarily flowery” and “colorful language,” Mr. Liu said

• “Law affects people’s lives. It’s not just a bunch of words on paper” or cases in a book, he said. And while a judge should not be biased, he should decide cases based on an “appreciation of what’s at stake in a particular case.”

West’s Encyclopedia of American Law defines “JUDGE” as “Judges must decide cases based on the applicable law.” Judicial activism in lieu of rule of law seems to be part of the Obama plan for America. In other words can’t get it though the legislature, just make law from the bench. That is not the American way.