EDITORIAL: Outrageous judicial pick still requires scrutiny--Expose Edward Chen's radicalism...

The Washington Times ^ | February 3, 2010 | Editorial

[jazusamo]

Tomorrow the Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to vote on five of President Obama's controversial court-and-justice nominees. Among them is federal district court nominee Edward Chen of Northern California, whose radical agenda has not been fully exposed and requires further public hearings rather than a vote.

If the Senate reveals Mr. Chen's long record of ill-advised statements and legal positions so that the general public can listen, plenty of Democratic senators will have to reconsider voting for such an extreme nominee.

As a federal magistrate in San Francisco, Mr. Chen objected to the singing of "America the Beautiful" at a funeral because of his "feelings of ambivalence and cynicism when confronted by appeals to patriotism." His first major public response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks was to worry that Americans would succumb to the "seemingly irresistible forces of racism, nativism and scapegoating." And he embraced the idea that a judge should decide on the believability of testimony by "draw[ing] on the breadth and depth of their own life experiences ... [including] one's ethnic and racial background."

And that's the moderate version of Mr. Chen. Before becoming a magistrate, Mr. Chen espoused views even further from America's social and legal mainstream.

[Sioux-san]

He sounds a lot like Sotomayor

[jazusamo]

Yep, if anything he may be more radical, he’s Obama and his thugs’ kind of guy.

[La Lydia]

Chen is the textbook illustration of the motto: They screwed up their own countries so bad they had to leave, and now they’re here, screwing up ours.

[4integrity]

Thanks for this post! imho, judicial nominees deserve significant scrutiny to ensure they will abide by our laws and Constitution and not inflict their own personal agenda on Americans or our American system of government.

copy going to Beck and O’Reilly.

[jazusamo]

Thanks...Both Beck and O’Reilly could make some noise on this.

[raptor22]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2374136/posts

[Jacquerie]

It really is time for pubbies on the committee to explode in a rage like the Pig Kennedy did at the Bork hearings. The rage will not stop the appointment of enemies of our Constitution but may, perhaps just start to get the people to pressure Senators to fight.

[jazusamo]

I most definitely agree. They have to make a lot of noise with nominees like this to wake people up.

[bt_dooftlook]

2 questions:

1. Does anyone know why the Washington Times took down the story? and

2. Has the committee voted on this today or is the vote yet to come?

[jazusamo]

I just logged on and was a surprise to me that the editorial was pulled. I found this editorial in the San Francisco Chronicle just now and I take their editorials with a grain of salt.

excerpt:

It seems that much of the "evidence" of Chen as a radical is drawn from his work for the ACLU. But, again, an attorney's advocacy role is much different than that of a judge - and Magistrate Chen has demonstrated his full appreciation for the value of a neutral arbiter who can act with absolute fidelity to the law.

Edward Chen: Portrait of a patriot

Looks like the Senate Judiciary Committee passed Chen on a 12/7 partyline vote.