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Giuliani-Appointed Judges Tend to Lean to the Left (50 Dems, 6 Republicans)
The Politico ^ | 3/1/07

Posted on 03/01/2007 8:24:02 AM PST by Mr. Brightside

Giuliani-Appointed Judges Tend to Lean to the Left

By: Ben Smith

February 28, 2007 06:30 PM EST

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani addresses a Hoover Institution luncheon at the Willard Hotel in Washington DC. (Patrick G. Ryan)

When Rudy Giuliani faces Republicans concerned about his support of gay rights and legal abortion, he reassures them that he is a conservative on the decisions that matter most.

"I would want judges who are strict constructionists because I am," he told South Carolina Republicans last month. "Those are the kinds of justices I would appoint -- Scalia, Alito and Roberts."

But most of Giuliani's judicial appointments during his eight years as mayor of New York were hardly in the model of Chief Justice John Roberts or Samuel Alito -- much less aggressive conservatives in the mold of Antonin Scalia.

A Politico review of the 75 judges Giuliani appointed to three of New York state's lower courts found that Democrats outnumbered Republicans by more than 8 to 1. One of his appointments was an officer of the International Association of Lesbian and Gay Judges. Another ruled that the state law banning liquor sales on Sundays was unconstitutional because it was insufficiently secular.

A third, an abortion-rights supporter, later made it to the federal bench in part because New York Sen. Charles E. Schumer, a liberal Democrat, said he liked her ideology.

Cumulatively, Giuilani's record was enough to win applause from people like Kelli Conlin, the head of NARAL Pro-Choice New York, the state's leading abortion-rights group. "They were decent, moderate people," she said.

"I don't think he was looking for someone who was particularly conservative," added Barry Kamins, a Democrat who chaired the panel of the Bar Association of the City of New York, which reviewed Giuliani's appointments. "He picked a variety from both sides of the spectrum. They were qualified, even-tempered, academically strong."

That is the kind of praise that will amount to damnation (not necessarily faint) among some of the people Giuliani will be trying to impress in Washington on Friday, when he addresses the Conservative Political Action Conference. The group is filled with social conservatives, for whom the effort to recast the ideological orientation of the federal judiciary has been a generation-long project. Giuliani already faced a high threshold of skepticism from many of these activists because of his comparatively liberal record on such hot-button issues as abortion rights, tolerance of gays and gun control.

Giuliani's judicial appointments continue to win good reviews in New York legal circles for being what conservatives sometimes say they want: competent lawyers selected with no regard to "litmus tests" on hot-button social issues. Many of these people were in the mode of Giuliani himself: tough-on-crime former prosecutors with reformist streaks and muted ideologies.

"He took it very seriously -- he spent a lot of time with these candidates," recalled Paul Curran, a Republican and former U.S. attorney who chaired Giuliani's Commission on Judicial Nominations. "He was looking for judges who were willing to enforce the laws."

The mayor of New York appoints judges to three of the state's lowest courts, the Criminal Court and Family Court, which deal with lower-grade crimes than the state's Supreme Court, the main trial court and the Civil Court, which deals in relatively small financial disputes.

When Giuliani took office in 1994, he inherited a system of judicial appointments created by one of his predecessors, Ed Koch, and designed to insulate the courts from political influence. Under the system, the mayor appoints members of an independent panel. Aspiring judges apply to the panel, which recommends three candidates for each vacancy. The mayor chooses among the three.

Giuliani, a former U.S. attorney, and top aides who remain close to him, Dennison Young and Michael Hess, reviewed the applications.

Giuliani cast himself in New York not as a conservative (he had actually run on the Liberal Party line) but as a reformer. Though at least 50 of his 75 appointees were registered Democrats (only six were registered Republicans), Giuliani also won praise for, some say, appointing fewer judges with ties to local Democratic politics than his predecessors.

"It was not people coming out of the clubhouses, which is what I'd seen earlier," said Charles Moerdler, a member of the Commission on Judicial Nominations who had served other mayors in the same capacity. "I did not support Rudy (the first time he ran) because he was too conservative for me, so I was very alert to that, but I didn't see any litmus tests on his part," he said.

Giuliani's judges serve across New York's courts, where they're more likely to encounter misdemeanant celebrities -- Boy George and Naomi Campbell have appeared recently in front of his appointees -- than they are to tangle with the Establishment Clause. Some, like a Family Court judge who ruled that an unmarried couple couldn't adopt, would please national conservatives. But many of their occasional forays into jurisprudence would likely make Scalia wince.

Charles Posner, a Brooklyn judge appointed by Giuliani, made the kind of decision that keeps conservatives up nights when he was asked to levy a fine against a shopkeeper, Abdulsam Yafee, who had illegally sold beer at 3:30 a.m. on a Sunday. In an unusual, lengthy 2004 ruling, Posner found that "there is no secular reason why beer cannot be sold on Sunday morning as opposed to any other morning."

Noting that Sunday is only the Christian Sabbath, Posner continued, "Other than this entanglement with religion, there is no rational basis for mandating Sunday as a day of rest as opposed to any other day."

Giuliani was out of office at the time of the decision and, in any case, had no say over his appointees' rulings. His spokeswoman, Maria Comella, declined to comment on the difference between the judges he appointed and those he promises to appoint.

Another Giuliani appointee reached a socially conservative verdict by a means that might not please strict constructionists. Judge Michael Sonberg denied a motion by two Bronx strip-club owners to dismiss prostitution charges against them that were based on dancers' offering "lap dances" to an undercover officer.

Sonberg ruled that the changing "cultural and sexual practices" of the previous two decades permitted him to alter the definition of prostitution.

"Statutory construction cannot remain static while entrepreneurial creativity brings forth heretofore unimagined sexual 'diversions,' " he wrote in a ruling that would have pleased social conservatives while, perhaps, alarming strict constructionists and strippers alike.

More troubling to some of the social conservatives Giuliani is courting, however, would have been Sonberg's other affiliation: When he was appointed in 1995, he was already an officer of the International Association of Lesbian and Gay Judges, a professional group. After his appointment, he became the group's president.

Laboring in the state's lower courts, few of Giuliani's other appointees show signs of ideological leanings. Two, however, were appointed to federal district courts -- one of them, Richard Berman, by President Bill Clinton. The other, Dora Irizarry, was a Bush nominee considered so liberal that Schumer pushed her nomination through.

Irizarry, appointed by Giuliani to the Bronx Criminal Court in 1996, had disclosed that she considers herself "pro-choice" during her 2002 campaign for New York state attorney general. Her appointment to the federal bench was almost derailed when the American Bar Association ruled her "not qualified" on the grounds that as a state judge, she had been "gratuitously rude and abrasive" and "flew off the handle in a rage."

But to Schumer, who led the fight against Bush's appellate judges, Irizarry was a Republican he could live with.

"Temperament is not at the top of my list," Schumer explained at the time, when asked why he supported the former Giuliani appointee. "Ideology is key."


TOPICS: Editorial; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: duncanhunter; elections; giuliani; rudy
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1 posted on 03/01/2007 8:24:03 AM PST by Mr. Brightside
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I'm, shocked! Shocked, I tell you.


2 posted on 03/01/2007 8:24:53 AM PST by Mr. Brightside
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To: Mr. Brightside; Liz

I often wonder just how "tough" Rudy Giuliani really was on crime in New York. How many plea bargains did he accept to get a "conviction" in comparison to other federal prosecutors? There must be some statistics out there somewhere.


3 posted on 03/01/2007 8:26:15 AM PST by TommyDale (What will Rudy do in the War on Terror? Implement gun control on insurgents and Al Qaeda?)
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To: Mr. Brightside

Wonder how far to the left Hildabeast's judges will be? Any hard core conservative out there that can beat Hildabeast?


4 posted on 03/01/2007 8:26:19 AM PST by AxelPaulsenJr (Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.)
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To: Mr. Brightside

If he gets elected, our judiciary will become a joke.


5 posted on 03/01/2007 8:26:51 AM PST by FreeInWV
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To: Mr. Brightside

I doubt if Rudy had may good judges to choose from in NYC.


6 posted on 03/01/2007 8:27:03 AM PST by GeorgefromGeorgia
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To: AxelPaulsenJr
Any hard core conservative out there that can beat Hildabeast?

McCain maybe? /sarc

7 posted on 03/01/2007 8:27:38 AM PST by jdm
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To: All
Though at least 50 of his 75 appointees were registered Democrats (only six were registered Republican)

Yeah, I guess the do "tend" to lean to the left.

8 posted on 03/01/2007 8:28:56 AM PST by adaven (http://www.red-dawn.net (The Man Show of forums))
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To: Mr. Brightside

Unfortunately for Rudy, conservatives are not as dumb as he and the msm think they are. We follow the excellent advice of Jesus, "By their fruits you shall know them." (Matt. 7:16) There is a lot of rotten fruit in this politician's past.


9 posted on 03/01/2007 8:30:51 AM PST by kittymyrib
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To: kittymyrib
Unfortunately for Rudy, conservatives are not as dumb as he and the msm think they are.

Not so sure about that....Many conservatives will stay away from their candidate if they don't like him or her, the dims always support their candidate, no matter what.

10 posted on 03/01/2007 8:34:14 AM PST by AxelPaulsenJr (Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.)
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To: Mr. Brightside
I wish that some of you given to bashing Mr. Guiliani would put his mayoral service in context. He was mayor of New York, not of Dallas. There are no elected Republicans in NYC, and the population of Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens is almost exclusively composed of Democrats. Had he tried to nominate even a majority of Republicans for judgeships in New York, he would have been shot down repeatedly, leaving an already strained judicial system in crisis. He chose to govern rather than tilt at windmills - that's what leaders do. I have significant differences of opinion with the man - but he is not a "liberal" in any modern sense of the word, and I think he deserves a fair hearing.
11 posted on 03/01/2007 8:34:16 AM PST by andy58-in-nh
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To: andy58-in-nh
"There are no elected Republicans in NYC"

Don't tell that to all the elected Republicans in NYC.

12 posted on 03/01/2007 8:38:57 AM PST by TommyDale (What will Rudy do in the War on Terror? Implement gun control on insurgents and Al Qaeda?)
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To: AxelPaulsenJr

Yes there is one!

Duncan Hunter can get the job done.

Plus we won't have to worry about conservatives sitting out.

I for one will not vote Rudy McRomney. And there are many more like me. As much as I don't like Hillary. I dislike voting for a rino.


13 posted on 03/01/2007 8:40:16 AM PST by proudpapa (Forget Rudy McRomney it's Duncan Hunter in '08!)
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To: andy58-in-nh

Well said! Thanks!


14 posted on 03/01/2007 8:40:42 AM PST by Aria
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To: andy58-in-nh

Apparently there is some vast untapped supply of conservative jurists in NYC. If it was a choice between liberal judges or no judges, I don't see how he had a choice.


15 posted on 03/01/2007 8:41:21 AM PST by Democratshavenobrains
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To: Mr. Brightside
"(50 Dems, 6 Republicans)"

We are talking about NY here. Look at what he has to choose from. LOL

16 posted on 03/01/2007 8:41:54 AM PST by Barrett 50BMG
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To: proudpapa
How does Duncan poll against Hildabeast?

I dislike voting for a rino.

Unfortunately that kind of thinking gave us 8 years of Slick Willie.

17 posted on 03/01/2007 8:42:02 AM PST by AxelPaulsenJr (Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.)
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To: FreeInWV

"If he gets elected, our judiciary will become a joke"

You obviously have no idea how federal judges are nominated. It's Republicans SENATORS (or senior reps if there are no Senators) who submit the names of district and appellate judges for the presidents to consider. The president only really pick Supreme Court judges on his own, and the bargain Giuliani has made with conservatives is that he will select Scalia-type judges. He is known as a man of his word- besides, he can't afford a third-party run by conservatives when he seeks reelection.


18 posted on 03/01/2007 8:43:06 AM PST by MittFan08 (Anybody but McCain)
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To: GeorgefromGeorgia

That sounds about right.


19 posted on 03/01/2007 8:46:18 AM PST by Unicorn (Too many wimps around.)
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Comment #20 Removed by Moderator


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