Free Republic

Senate Confirms David Hamilton, Obama's First Pro-Abortion Judicial Pick Washington, DC -- The Senate voted today 59-39 to confirm a pro-abortion federal judge President Barack Obama appointed to become a new appeals court justice. David Hamilton, of Indiana, is the first pro-abortion judge Obama selected, but he was held up for months because of his extreme views. Story, votes and action alert at http://www.lifenews.com/nat5689.htm

Wednesday, October 21, 2009 Court Dismisses Kerchner Complaint/Petition for Lack of Standing. The Decision Will Be Appealed. The Hon. Jerome B. Simandle of the Federal District Court in the District of New Jersey at 10:39 a.m., on October 21, 2009, filed his long-awaited opinion dismissing the Kerchner et al. v. Obama et al. complaint/petition. We allege that Obama has not conclusively proven that he was born in Hawaii. We also allege that even if he was so born, he is not an Article II “natural born Citizen” because his father was a British subject/citizen when Obama was born and Obama...

He's just getting started. And if this fellow is any indication of the kind of judges we can expect to populate our federal courts, I guarantee you we will spend the next decade or more scratching our heads at the idiotic leftist decisions that will become commonplace on the federal bench. From an editorial in the Washington Times: On Oct. 1, the president nominated Louis Butler, a former Wisconsin Supreme Court justice, to the U.S. District Court of his state's Western District. While Mr. Butler's resume is in order, his appreciation of a judge's proper role seems lacking. Mr. Butler...

In the DeLano case, 06-4780-bk, Judge Sotomayor, presiding, and her colleagues on a panel of the Court of Appeals, 2nd Circuit (CA2), issued a summary order to protect, not the rule of law, but rather their appointee to a bankruptcy judgeship, Bankruptcy Judge John C. Ninfo, II, WBNY. Her conduct in that case and the order are so contemptuous of the most important Constitutional guarantee that a judge, let alone a justice of the Supreme Court, must safeguard, namely, due process of law, that Judge Sotomayor withheld the order from the Committee in her three principal and supplementary responses to...

In Tennessee, a judge is legally required to be “patient, dignified and courteous” with people in court. He is also required, not unreasonably, “to respect and comply with the law”. But not all judges do. The Supreme Court of Tennessee recently disciplined Judge Durwood Moore for unlawful judicial conduct. Presiding in court one day, the judge happened to glance at Benjamin Marchant, a friend of someone who had court business. Marchant was not a witness, just a spectator. Yet after observing him, the judge ordered court officers to seize the man, get a urine sample from him and have it...

...Obama chose the most far left judicial activist available as his Supreme Court nominee—but the Obama press will make certain that this is NOT about Sotomayor’s far left judicial activism. No, according to the leftist press, Republicans will make race an issue in Sotomayor confirmation! Hatch, Cornyn and Graham are already gun shy on the matter…

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kansas, said Thursday he does not plan to vote to confirm Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, becoming the first Republican to explicitly state his opposition to President Obama's pick for the high court. "With all due respect to the nominee and nothing personal, I do not plan to vote for her," Roberts told talk radio host Christ Stigall on Kansas station KCMO. Roberts also noted he was one of the 28 Senate Republicans in 1998 who voted against confirming Sotomayor to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. Sotomayor was ultimately confirmed to that court...

After Gov. Sarah Palin's selection of a new justice for the Alaska Supreme Court last month proved controversial, the governor agreed to a live interview about the process of picking judges. We sent the governor a few general questions in advance. Then she decided to answer in writing. Here's what she wrote:

It's not typical that Texomans would welcome a former pro football player who wasn't a Dallas Cowboy or Houston Oiler. However, they did Wednesday night as part of MSU's Artist Lecture Series. While Hall of Famer Viking Alan Page earned accolades on the football field, it's his work off the football field that he was here to discuss. Jason Calder reports. He was a defensive tackle for the Minnesota Vikings, number 88, part of the Purple People Eaters. Alan Page said, "Football players are really known as dumb jocks and defensive linemen have all been hit in the head at...

Washington, DC -- President Barack Obama has nominated his first pro-abortion judicial candidate as he named David Hamilton as his first Appeals Court nominee. Hamilton is a former Clinton nominee whom Obama has appointed to serve on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Hamilton was initially appointed by President Clinton to a district judgeship in Indiana in 1994 even though the ABA gave him a “not qualified” rating. In that position, Hamilton issued a series of rulings over seven years that prevented Indiana from implementing its informed consent law that would give women information about abortion's risks and alternatives.

Gov. Palin is totally pro-life. Always has been. Always will be. She believes in a culture of life from cradle to grave. Her choice for Supreme Court judge was made in accordance with Alaska law. She chose the person most qualified from the names sent to her. The Governor's choice has a record of fairness. That is important as the courts sort out some very thorny issues. Governor Palin's choices were either a liberal or an independent. She went with the independent. And as the following article reflects - this selection process is flawed. ........................ Process of selecting Alaska's judges...

... In one of the most shocking cases of courtroom graft on record, two Pennsylvania judges have been charged with taking millions of dollars in kickbacks to send teenagers to two privately run youth detention centers. "I've never encountered, and I don't think that we will in our lifetimes, a case where literally thousands of kids' lives were just tossed aside in order for a couple of judges to make some money," said Marsha Levick, an attorney with the Philadelphia-based Juvenile Law Center, which is representing hundreds of youths sentenced in Wilkes-Barre. Prosecutors say Luzerne County Judges Mark Ciavarella and...

I am no jurist and, I’ll admit, I may be reading too much into Judge Scoles’ specific ruling. However, gentle reader, the language used by the honorable judge has certainly raised my eyebrows. Does His Honor really mean to imply that, as a Jew, Mr. Rubashkin is a bigger flight risk than if he were not a Jew?!?!? I wonder if this very Honorable judge would have thought, for example, of making a ruling denying bail to some Imam whose pronouncements were too incendiary for inciting to shed infidels’ blood? Don’t you think that CAIR, ISNA, ICNA and others would...

What would happen if on the 5th of Nov it was obvious that McCain had won the election by a fairly wide margin and Obama refused to concede? I am not sure but I am very afraid that in the current racial and political climate things could get out of hand very quickly and, potentially, very explosively.

"At the establishment of our constitutions, the judiciary bodies were supposed to be the most helpless and harmless members of the government. Experience, however, soon showed in what way they were to become the most dangerous; that the insufficiency of the means provided for their removal gave them a freehold and irresponsibility in office; that their decisions, seeming to concern individual suitors only, pass silent and unheeded by the public at large; that these decisions, nevertheless, become law by precedent, sapping, by little and little, the foundations of the constitution, and working its change by construction, before any one has...

The California Supreme Court, in a 4-3 majority, attempted a new form of alchemy today. They tried to change homosexual partnerships into something they simply are not capable of being, marriage. They did so through a raw exercise of renegade judicial authority which clearly rejected the expressed will of the people of California. They did so without even making any pretense of relying on past precedent. They simply declared, in the words of the majority, that protecting marriage as a lifelong relationship of love between a man and a woman which forms the foundation of the first society of the...

Glass shattered in a driveway in a quiet Albuquerque subdivision a few nights after Christmas. Minutes later, at the end of a chaotic quarter-mile trek over fences, through vacant lots and across a six-lane highway, police sirens began to wail. One man lay dead against a chain-link fence, dirt on his teeth and a bullet hole in his heart. The other stood in his stocking feet in the middle of the street with his revolver tucked into the waistband of his jeans. "Why did he do it, sir?" he asked the officer who took his gun and put him in...

A river is a beautiful thing. However, a river outside its banks is called a flood and turns from being a beautiful amenity to being a destructive force. This role change describes what may be happening to our judicial branch of government. There are many very fine judges, but all too often we hear about bad decisions in which the judge applied his personal philosophy to arrive at a decision far beyond simply interpreting the law. We are seeing a nationwide trend of judges starting to tax and spend without legislative authority. It is bad enough to see a poor...

Scientists have developed a computerised mind-reading technique which lets them accurately predict the images that people are looking at by using scanners to study brain activity. The breakthrough by American scientists took MRI scanning equipment normally used in hospital diagnosis to observe patterns of brain activity when a subject examined a range of black and white photographs. Then a computer was able to correctly predict in nine out of 10 cases which image people were focused on. Guesswork would have been accurate only eight times in every 1,000 attempts. The study raises the possibility in the future of the technology...

Governors Highway Safety Program Attempts to Bias NC Judges Against Motorcyclists Raleigh, NC December 23, 2008 Editorial opinion of a Concerned Citizen Documented proof has been published by the NC Governors Highway Safety Program, that the NC GHSP is using taxpayer funded lobbying to influence North Carolina judges in advance of "technical changes" to the General Statute 20-140.4 which contains the NC helmet law statute, effective date of January 1, 2008. In an article published in the Fall 2007 issue of Centerline, which is published by the Governors Highway Safety Program, NC Department of Transportation, is the following quote: "GHSP...

San Francisco imprisons African Americans for drug offenses at a much higher rate than whites, according to a report to be released today... *** San Francisco locks up a higher percentage of members of the African American community in drug cases than any other county in the study. In the county, 123 people out of every 100,000 are sent to state prison each year for drug offenses. Of those, whites are incarcerated at a rate of 35 per 100,000 white people, while blacks are incarcerated at a rate of 1,013 per 100,000 black people. "It is not that San Francisco...

(Washington, DC) -- Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that it recently uncovered through the Freedom of Information Act a videotape (and transcript) of an August 15, 2007 town hall meeting on illegal immigration held in Laredo, Texas. During the meeting, held at Texas A&M International University’s campus, US Border Patrol (USBP) Laredo Sector Chief Carlos X. Carrillo disclaimed the illegal immigration and narcotics enforcement missions of the USBP.

Judge Michael Mukasey's acceptance of George Bush's offer to become his third attorney general brought to mind the title of a relatively obscure 19th century French novel called "La Bas," which means, "down there." "La bas," of course, would be modern Washington. "Down there" the denizens push a great grinding wheel that circles endlessly. George Bush proposes. Harry Reid repudiates. Into this spun-down place comes a nominee for attorney general who is said to have "little Washington experience." Let us not dwell on the latter-day meaning of that phrase. We shall posit, however, that Washington needs Judge Mukasey more than...

DETROIT (AP) - A Wayne County Circuit Court judge accused of working too slowly no longer is allowed to handle pretrial motions. The state's Judicial Tenure Commission also is reviewing 27 cases in which Thomas was reversed by appeals courts in the past five years.

SACRAMENTO Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday signaled his intention to appeal a federal court decision that orders a special judicial panel to examine severe overcrowding in California's prison system. The governor's action comes a day after the chief judge of the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals created the three-judge panel, following the recommendation of two federal judges. The panel will be charged with examining how overcrowding is affecting inmate health care, mental health, services for the disabled and other prison operations. Among the possible remedies are a cap of California's inmate population and early release of some prisoners. The...

New York Sen. Charles E. Schumer, a powerful member of the Democratic leadership, said Friday the Senate should not confirm another U.S. Supreme Court nominee under President Bush “except in extraordinary circumstances.” “We should reverse the presumption of confirmation,” Schumer told the American Constitution Society convention in Washington. “The Supreme Court is dangerously out of balance. We cannot afford to see Justice Stevens replaced by another Roberts, or Justice Ginsburg by another Alito.” Schumer’s assertion comes as Democrats and liberal advocacy groups are increasingly complaining that the Supreme Court with Bush’s nominees – Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice...

In the USA, back when Sandra D. was still on the court, the US Constitution was suddenly deemed to be subservient to politically correct multi-cultural standards and practices. Since the whims of political appointees become the law of the land when, according to precedent, personal opinions written by judges supersede the legislation of elected branches in what used to be government of, by and for the people, it's fair to assume that we should look to foreign courts to see what's in store for us, as well as legalists, when they push their own particular envelope. FOX News had yet...

GRAND JUNCTION - A Park County prosecutor tried last month to keep in jail a driver who is now suspected in a high-speed crash that killed two college students. "I thought he was a clear and present danger to the motoring public," Deputy District Attorney Martin Kenney, of Fairplay, said Friday. On Thursday night, police say, Patrick Strawmatt killed two 19-year-old Mesa State College freshmen as he drove 120 mph from a pursuing Colorado State Patrol trooper. He made an obscene hand gesture and raced away, slamming into a compact car carrying two students, Jennifer Kois, of Brighton, and Jacob...

Ben Franklin didn’t need the lyrics of ABBA’s “The Winner Takes It All” to know that regarding a vote, only one group gets what it wants: for example, in the vote taken by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, deciding whether America would become a free, democratic nation or remain a colony ruled by a monarch or in the one taken by the Constitutional Convention on September 17, 1787 (and later by individual states), deciding whether the nation ought to adopt the Constitution or continue under the Articles of Confederation. To prove the point about what Franklin knew,...

WASHINGTON - Milberg Weiss is particularly active in New York. Melvyn Weiss was a guest at a glittering 2003 Manhattan fundraiser for then-New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer that raised more than $2 million for his gubernatorial bid. Following the Milberg Weiss indictment in May, Spitzer returned $124,000 in donations from the firm and related individuals. The donations flap was barely noticed and did nothing to dent gubernatorial candidate Spitzer’s image of unsullied rectitude. A Spitzer Web site notes that he was named “Crusader of the Year” by Time magazine and the “Sheriff of Wall Street” by 60 Minutes....

WASHINGTON - The incoming Democratic chairman of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee promised on Wednesday to combat what he denounced as President George W. Bush's war-time trampling of American rights. "We have a duty to repair real damage done to our system of government over the last few years," Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont said in outlining his panel's agenda for the 110th, Democratic-led Congress, which is set to convene on January 4. [Snip] "We are way overdue in catching up to the erosion of privacy," Leahy said. "This will be one of our highest priorities." Leahy said he also...

Andrew Thomas, County Attorney On December 5, 2006, 7he decision of a Maricopa County jury to find an illegal immigrant guilty of Conspiracy to Commit Human Smuggling under Arizona's new law was set by Judge Thomas O'Toole. This extraordinary decision contradicts two of the judge's own prior rulings and overturns a unanimous jury verdict from a cross-section of citizens reached after less than an hour of deliberations. This latest ruling, while disappointing, is not entirely surprising. Judge O'Toole has changed his mind about these issues a number of times. In the course of handling several of this office's smuggling...

From April 1775 to Yorktown in 1781, Americans fought and died to end that rule of kings – only to have their meek and timid heirs submit to a rule of judges. A tiny minority of judges in America now dictates to the Great Silent Majority. Of all these outrages and idiocies, one thing may be said: No legislature, no executive at the state or federal level would have survived imposing such measures upon us. For 50 years, this nation permitted the Warren Court, and its successors and imitators in the state courts, to create a body of judge-made law...

New Jersey's highest court gave a resounding, unanimous endorsement this week to the principle that same-sex couples must be accorded the "same financial and social benefits and privileges" as heterosexual partners. But the court choked on calling gay unions "marriage." The ruling clearly advanced the long legal and political battle by gays and lesbians to achieve the equal status guaranteed to them as a fundamental human right. A 4-to-3 majority of the New Jersey court maintained, though, that it is the job of the legislature to confer such social acceptance, "which must come from the evolving ethos of a maturing...

Over the past decade and a half, U.S. District Court Judge Thelton Henderson has become the one of the most important figures in the state in setting prison policy, or at least trying to change it. Henderson's rulings have placed the judge firmly in control over issues ranging from use of force at Pelican Bay State Prison to internal discipline to improving medical care. They've also put him in position to direct billions in state spending into the correctional system -- with no legislative oversight. The 72-year-old judge's career has just been chronicled in Abby Ginzberg's documentary, "Soul of Justice:...

There is terrorism in Baghdad but a criminal gang problem has also been plaguing our nation's capital. In an officially declared "crime emergency," black criminals had been robbing, assaulting, and even raping tourists in the National Mall area, where the Washington Monument and the World War II and Lincoln Memorials stand. This is an area that had been considered safe and "tourist-friendly." Three young black men were arrested for these crimes, but you could search in vain in the local media for any reference to their skin color. Instead, they were described as "D.C. youths" or just "five people." Stories...

Cross Posted at Iowans for Romney: Disclaimer: THis is a Pro-Romney Piece and I run a pro-Romney blogsite. I am not paid for my efforts. What I've created below is in response to a commonly recurring attack on Romney: that he can't be trusted to appoint good conservative/constructionist judges because of his record of judicial appointees as Massachusetts Governor, specifically regarding gay-activist judges. The issue came up in a discussion thread to an article I posted on Free Republic (Over 135 comments so far, and some heated debate). One comment (#123), by JohnnyZ summed up the most common attack: Romney's...

Friend Campaign Unveils Its New Website (PIKEVILLE, KY) Pike District Judge Kelsey E. Friend, Jr. officially launched his campaign's website today. "This website gives me an opportunity to communicate directly with voters," Friend said. "Ultimately, I believe that informed citizens will be able to make the best decision when they head to the polls on November 7th." The website can be found online at: Friend for Judge

Just six months after quitting the all-male social club to which he belonged for 50 years, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy is questioning one of President Bush's nominees to the federal bench about his membership in an all-male dining club. "What is your reason for failing to resign from the club any earlier than February 2, 2006?" Mr. Kennedy demanded in writing of Oklahoma lawyer Jerome A. Holmes, nominated to the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Documents provided to the Senate Judiciary Committee and obtained by The Washington Times show that Mr. Holmes belonged to the Men's Dinner Club of...

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush on Wednesday sent four nominations to the Senate to fill vacancies on federal appeals courts. Nominated were Kent Jordan of Delaware, for the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals; Debra Ann Livingston of New York, for the 2nd Circuit; and Raymond Kethledge and Stephen Joseph Murphy III, both of Michigan, for the 6th Circuit. Jordan has been a U.S. district judge in Delaware since 2002. Before that, Jordan, who attended Brigham Young University and earned a law degree from Georgetown University, was an adjunct professor at the University of Pennsylvania, Vanderbilt University and Widener University....

The Senate Judiciary Committee is quietly maneuvering to act on two of President Bush's appellate court nominees this summer, while a third nominee awaiting action on the Senate floor is slowly moving closer to a vote, Republican aides told HUMAN EVENTS today. A GOP aide said the Judiciary Committee is moving toward a vote on William Haynes' confirmation to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in July. But before the committee brings Haynes up for a vote, Chairman Arlen Specter (R.-Pa.) is likely hold a second hearing, at which time Haynes would be given the opportunity to defend himself...

Remember Elian Gonzalez? By surrounding his home supporters kept the media tuned to his story and made all Americans aware of his plight. In the same spirit Freestar hopes that you will form a "Human Constitution" around the homes and businesses of victims of eminent domain abuse on eviction day. Soon Freestar will send out an invite to tabulate how many people will show up at the below-listed evictions. Only people who receive our free Newsletter will receive this invite. We need volunteers to help with the planning. We intend to invite campers and RV owners to the Halper farm....

Book Review - From Schoolhouse to Courthouse:Exposing America's New Terror From Within,by Dr. Carl Parnell by Wayne Boettcher Posted: 06/02/2006 What's wrong with our kids today? It seems like they are always getting into trouble! Rebellion, disobedience, falling grades, vandalism, drugs, crime and running away to the party life seem a familiar pattern in today's teenagers. Even young people that avoid the worst of it have to struggle to maintain a somewhat normal life and battle pressure on a daily basis from misbehaving friends who are determined to take them down the wrong path. Yes, those children just won't...

The charges they wish to dismiss against Pinkerton(without prejudice) from three arrests in six months are 9 counts: 1 count impersonating a police officer 1 count terroristic threatening a police officer 1st degree 1 count intimidating a witness (police officer) 2 counts assault in the 1st degree against police officers 1 count resisting arrest 1 count criminal property damage 1 count open container 1 count DUI Pinkerton has presented the evidence exposing the conspiracy against him, which can be found at http://www.kpinkerton.com . This website is now exculpatory evidence. The conditions of the plea agreement are very peculiar. The nature...

SCARY MOVIE 5, JUST IN TIME FOR FALL! When I was a kid I loved watching those cheesy horror movies like Friday the 13th or Halloween. My friends and I would sit around and invent ludicrous story lines for the mother of all horror films. Well, I have an idea for a film that could roll out in the fall of 2006. Here's the plot--Imagine a Congress that: (1) seriously considers impeaching the President; (2) launches countless investigations into the "bungled" war on terror; (3) votes against any judicial nominee who believes in originalism; (4) raises the estate tax; (5)...

White House Counsel Harriet Miers, the Supreme Court nominee who withdrew after a conservative revolt last fall, has allegedly vetoed several recommendations offered by conservatives to fill vacancies on federal courts. The White House would not directly respond to the charge, which was made this morning during a conference call with more than 40 conservative leaders. Two people on the call—whose identities I promised to keep confidential—said they had inside knowledge of the recommended nominees whom Miers nixed.

"Trust the president." That was the Bush administration's main defense of the president's bizarre choice of corporate lawyer Harriet Miers for a seat on the Supreme Court. But the administration also had a backup rationale: as D.C.'s Hill newspaper reported, in an October 3, 2005, conference call with conservative leaders, Republican National Committee chair Ken Mehlman stressed "the need to confirm a justice who will not interfere with the administration's management of the war on terrorism." It was a bit unsettling to hear that proposition stated so baldly, but no one who has followed the administration's drive to expand executive...

Kansas Judicial Watch 105 E. Rhondda Andover, KS 67002 PRESS RELEASE For Publication Wichita Federal District Court Judge Monti Belot recently irritated some Kansas state lawmakers with his personal statement critical of the legislature’s priorities. However, under Republican Party of Minnesota vs. White, 536 U.S. 765 (2002, 7-2 Opinion), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that all judges, state and federal, have first amendment rights to state their opinions, both as judicial candidates and while serving on the bench. The high court made it clear that a judge’s partiality is sacrificed only when he favors one party over another, and that...

"Is it asking too much that the President’s nominees for lifetime appointments to the federal courts at least get the support of 60 of 100 senators?" - Sen. Joe Lieberman on ABC’s This Week, on Sunday, May 22, 2005 "These last-minute efforts using procedural maneuvers ... has been the wrong way of going about it." - Sen. Barack Obama on ABC’s This Week, on Sunday, Jan 29, 2006 Senate Democrats just can’t understand why Republicans object to judicial filibusters requiring 60 votes to approve President Bush’s nominees. They have controlled the Senate for so many decades they find it impossible...