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Pat Leahy grills Trump judicial nominee: Do you think gay marriage is like marrying bacon? AllahpunditPosted at 5:31 pm on November 15, 2017 This is so pitifully stupid. Either Democrats are desperate for attack lines against Texas Supreme Court Justice Don Willett, Trump’s nominee for the Fifth Circuit, or Leahy is so out of touch after 42 years in the Senate that he can’t recognize goofball humor when he sees it. Here’s the genesis of Willett’s “controversial” bacon analogy: I could support recognizing a constitutional right to marry bacon. pic.twitter.com/HKPW6tE4H6 — Justice Don Willett (@JusticeWillett) April 30, 2015 If you’re...

The Daily Beast reports that Judge Beryl Howell is the jurist who signed off on Robert Mueller’s request to convene a Washington, D.C. grand jury for the Russia investigation. It also says that, going forward, Howell “will be the umpire-in-chief: deciding whether or not Trump allies’ lawyers can quash subpoenas, and whether or not people like Jared Kushner can invoke what’s known as executive privilege to get out of testifying under oath before Mueller’s grand jury.” Howell won’t have the final say. Her rulings will be subject to appeal and, to the extent they deal with matters like executive privilege,...

Pro-life leaders say his anecdote is about a Nazi-trained abortionist Sen. Patrick Leahy's attempt to defend Roe v. Wade won applause from pro-life activists on Wednesday, who said the anecdote he shared highlighted how safety laws would protect patients. Sen. Leahy (D., Vt.) recounted his experience prosecuting a Nazi-trained doctor who crossed the Canadian border to perform illegal abortions in Vermont to the Judiciary Committee during the third day of Supreme Court nominee Judge Neil Gorsuch's confirmation hearing. Leahy called the incident representative of the "dark days" before the Supreme Court struck down state laws against abortion in the landmark...

U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy appeared to be trying to support abortion during his questioning of U.S. Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch on Wednesday. It may not have been intentional, but the Vermont Democrat’s testimony actually reinforced a pro-life point about how abortion often is used to exploit women. Leahy brought up a personal experience he had before Roe v. Wade with an abortionist who botched a young woman’s abortion and nearly killed her, along with her unborn child. That abortionist, he said, was Nazi-trained. The Washington Examiner reports: He discussed a case in which he, as a state’s attorney in...

Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy struggled to pin down Judge Neil Gorsuch Tuesday on President Trump's controversial travel ban, as the Supreme Court nominee smoothly sidestepped questions relating to the policy currently on hold by the courts. Gorsuch instead directed the contentious cross-examination into more general terrain where Gorsuch could advocate for religious liberty, without commenting on the specifics of the case. “I will apply the law,” Gorsuch vowed, during the second day of his Senate confirmation hearing. Leahy initially had tried to get the 10th Circuit Court judge to comment on the notion of a “religious litmus test for entry...

Thursday, March 16, 2017 The Leahy Rules for Supreme Court Confirmation Mean Gorsuch Must Be Confirmed In preparation for the Gorsuch hearing next week, we thought we would mention some of the Democrat Rules for confirmation of a Supreme Court Justice from their most senior member. The Leahy Rule (Part 1) on the President’s power to pick a Supreme Court Justice. And I think as members of the [Judiciary] Committee, we should respect the mandate the president has earned. The president had told us in 1980 and 1984 he would appoint judges of his philosophy. He was given a mandate...

The Democrats Don’t Have a Foreign Policy, They Have A Trump Policy Not just treasonous, stupid. May 10, 2018 Daniel Greenfield Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical left and Islamic terrorism. Quick, what’s the Dem position on Syria? What about China? Don’t bother. There was once a time when Democrats could discuss Syria, North Korea, the South China Sea, economic tensions in the European Union and the future of Africa. But that was before Trump. Democrats don’t have a foreign policy anymore. They have a Trump...

“The group, led by Democrat Senator and Senate Appropriations Committee Vice Chairman, Patrick Leahy, arrived in Cuba last weekend to review changes in Washington’s policy toward the island since President Donald Trump assumed office in January 2017. During the press conference, Leahy mentioned the meeting that he and his colleagues held yesterday with Cuban President, Raúl Castro…During the press conference the Senator for Vermont criticized the new direction taken by the Trump administration with regard to Cuba policy.” (Cuba’s Communist party paper, Granma.)The rest of the U.S. delegation consisted of senators Ron Wyden (D-OR), Gary Peters (D-MI), Jim McGovern (D-MA),...

They scowled as President Trump touted soaring jobs numbers, sat stone-faced when he honored veterans, and one even walked out after becoming triggered by a patriotic chant. Democrats at President Trump's first State of the Union, after a year of partisan rancor, showed they were in no mood to accept his call for bipartisanship. "Why are @TheDemocrats not applauding job growth, higher wages and the drop in Latino and African-American unemployment?" pollster Frank Luntz asked in a tweet. "I thought economic success is good for everyone regardless of party." Rep. Luis Gutierrez walked out after chants of "USA, USA!" erupted...

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s grand plan to spend $1 trillion over the next 10 years on highways and other infrastructure improvements faces a formidable roadblock in Congress and state legislatures. There’s agreement the investment is badly needed to improve the nation’s sagging infrastructure but how to cover the huge expense is the point of tension. Trump would use $200 billion in public funds to generate $800 billion in private money under a partnership program that would finance government bonds and also return a profit to private companies through interstate tolls and other user fees. To do that, Congress would...

The Senate’s most senior Democrat says he probably won’t join his party’s effort to filibuster Judge Neil Gorsuch, in the first major indication that Republicans may not have to resort to the so-called “nuclear option” to fill the empty Supreme Court seat. Senator Patrick Leahy, Vermont Democrat, said he’ll vote against Judge Gorsuch’s nomination, but doesn’t think a filibuster is the right path. “I am not inclined to filibuster, even though I’m not inclined to vote for him,” Leahy told the Vermont Digger on Sunday.

The Senate has scheduled confirmation hearings for President Trump’s nominee, Neil Gorsuch, to fill the vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court to begin on Monday — almost exactly a year after President Obama nominated Merrick Garland for the same post. What difference a year makes. President Obama held a Rose Garden press conference on the morning of March 16, 2016, to announce his choice of Garland, the centrist chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Two out of three voters (65 percent) told Pew Research Center last summer that Supreme Court appointments were “very important”...

Some of us are old enough to remember the Clarence Thomas Supreme Court confirmation battle. We were shocked when reports first surfaced that Thomas, a well-regarded former chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, was being accused of sexual harassment. But then we heard his accuser’s ever-changing and uncorroborated testimony, and we compared it with the testimony of a dozen close female colleagues who effusively praised Thomas as a boss known for how well he treated the women around him. We learned that his accuser Anita Hill’s testimony was contradicted by data and evidence. Thomas won his confirmation battle....

You've heard of the water pollution crisis in Flint, Michigan infecting residents and seeping into US politics, but the toxicity emanating from Vermont and trickling down throughout American politics is less known but no less serious. Last month, Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy and 10 House members asked Secretary of State Kerry to investigate alleged Israeli human rights abuses and to determine whether they are reason enough to cut military aid. Leahy asked to look into “gross violations of human rights” by Israel (and Egypt), citing examples of alleged extrajudicial killings by both countries. The anti-Israel source of these allegations should...

Israel Defends Use of Force in Interrogation Published: May 8, 1997 GENEVA, May 7— Appearing before a skeptical panel of United Nations experts, Israeli officials today strenuously defended their nation's use of physical coercion in questioning detainees who might have information about terrorism. The hearing was by turns emotional and highly technical, and the Israeli officials for the first time provided a specific example in which they said a bombing had been averted with intelligence obtained through what Israel calls ''moderate physical pressure.''

Pat Leahy’s Israel Obsession The Vermont senator’s fixation with the Jewish State turns ugly. April 1, 2016 Ari Lieberman    Vermont, the state that gave us unrepentant socialist, Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is home to another radical liberal breed named Patrick Leahy (D-VT). Along with Sanders, Sen. Leahy represents the left flank of the Democratic Party and often finds himself at loggerheads with its more centrist members. Not unsurprising, Leahy is also a visceral critic of Israel, the Mideast’s only democracy and stalwart U.S. ally. In 2011, citing alleged human rights violations, he proposed a bill that would have cut...

Netanyahu responds to claim of 'extrajudicial killings,' noting that Sen. Leahy did not condemn PA leaders for inciting to murder. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has responded to a letter in which US Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) called for an investigation into claims that Israel carries out extrajudicial killings against Palestinians. "The IDF and the Israel Police do not engage in executions. Israel’s soldiers and police officers defend themselves and innocent civilians with the highest moral standards against bloodthirsty terrorists who come to murder them," he wrote. "Where is the concern for the human rights of the many Israelis who’ve been...

"New State Department Emails Reveal Blumenthal Advised Clinton that former Rep. Eric Cantor Committed a Possible ‘Felony’ by Disclosing Petraeus Classified Information".... ‘Will a grand jury be empaneled by the Justice Department? When will Senator Patrick Leahy, chair of the Judiciary Committee… begin an investigation of this matter?’ – November 13, 2012 Blumenthal advised top Obama debate advisor that Romney would ‘falsify, distort, and mangle facts;’ advised Clinton on Libya turmoil disclosed in ‘internal govt discussions high level’ (Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that on January 7, 2016, it obtained a new batch of documents from the Department...

In the wake of the deadly Paris attacks by ISIS, some GOP presidential candidates such as Ted Cruz, Donald Trump and even Marco Rubio are calling for an end to Syrian refugee resettlement in the U.S. Most of the others have been silent or vague on the issue of Syrian refugees - about 2,000 of whom have already arrived in the U.S. despite warnings from the FBI that it’s impossible to vet their backgrounds. But there is one candidate who is clearly on the record wanting more Syrian Muslims to pour into American cities and towns as "refugees," despite the...

Two top senators Thursday demanded that the Obama administration explain why the Internal Revenue Service is using technology to secretly track cellphones that is normally the domain of law-enforcement agencies. The move by Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont followed IRS Commissioner John Koskinen's admission to the Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday that the agency uses the technology.