Posted on 02/27/2016 6:00:23 AM PST by afraidfortherepublic
Last night, in response to a question from Hugh Hewitt as to whether he would make a deal with liberals on religious liberty, Donald Trump decided to defend the judicial record of his sister, federal appeals court judge Maryanne Trump Barry, on abortion. In doing so, Trump displayed his characteristic ignorance and dishonesty.
Here was the exchange:
TRUMP: Now, Ted’s been very critical — I have a sister who’s a brilliant . . .
HEWITT: Mr. Cruz, will you make a deal about religious liberty?
TRUMP: . . . excuse me. She’s a brilliant judge. He’s been criticizing — he’s been criticizing my sister for signing a certain bill. You know who else signed that bill? Justice Samuel Alito, a very conservative member of the Supreme Court, with my sister, signed that bill.
So I think that maybe we should get a little bit of an apology from Ted. What do you think?
It took me a moment to figure out what Trump was talking about. Judges don’t sign bills.
I soon realized that Trump must be saying that Justice (then Judge) Alito agreed with Judge Barry’s infamous ultra pro-abortion opinion in a case before the Third Circuit. But that couldn’t be right either, could it?
No it is not, as Ramesh Ponnuru shows. The case in question, Planned Parenthood of Central New Jersey v. Farmer, concerned a New Jersey law that banned partial birth abortion. The Supreme Court had already struck down a similar law before the Third Circuit (on which Barry and Alito sat) decided the matter. Thus, the New Jersey law had to be struck down, as well. Judges Barry and Alito agreed on this obvious and narrow point.
But Trump’s sister wrote an opinion that went much further. As Ponnuru puts it, her expansive opinion laid out an argument that would logically justify a constitutional right to infanticide. He explains:
Under the Supreme Court’s abortion jurisprudence, the right to life of a developing human being depended on whether it was inside or outside the womb — and not, for example, on its stage of development. Inside the womb, the child was a fetus with no rights, and outside the child was an infant with rights. Pro-lifers wanted to mark an outer limit to this abortion regime by making it illegal to kill a human being who was partway out of the womb.
Judge Barry said that this was absurd and irrational. It makes no difference where the “fetus” is when it “expires,” as she put it, during an abortion.
But if that’s right, then (as pro-lifers have pointed out before) it can’t make a difference if the child is fully outside the womb either. And she’s right, of course, that the location-based rule of Roe makes no sense. That’s where the irrationality lies. But she would resolve its contradictions by beginning to rationalize a constitutional right to commit and procure infanticide.
Needless to say, Samuel Alito did not sign that “bill.” To state things correctly, he did not join Barry’s opinion. He called it “unnecessary” and “obsolete” given the Supreme Court’s ruling, and stated merely that the higher court’s decision on partial-birth abortion is controlling.
Perhaps Trump used the word “bill” instead of “opinion” in an attempt to skate past the fact that Alito did not agree with Barry’s odious position on abortion. Regardless, Cruz is right about Trump’s sister and Trump knows it.
The woman Trump holds out as a model jurist is obscenely pro-abortion.
If Obama had said this he'd been skewered on FR.
Why does Trump get a pass?
What would be nice is if we could sweep up all these hit pieces into one location.
They are polluting FreeRepublic.
Every establishment hack and wannabe hack are going to the ends of the earth to find the lynch pin that brings Trump down.
What would be facinating, would be some charts showing the production metrics of the establishment hit piece factory.
National Review, American Thinker, RedState, Foxnews, etc.. are all part of the RNC conglomerate. Hell, even Brent Bozel’s MRC has gone to the dark side.
I don’t find the articles or the content worthy of discussion so much as the mechanics of the political machine.
Trump is about delivery, not the substance of his often contradictory remarks. Cruz is my horse in this race, but I’m resolved to the inevitability of this nomination process going to Trump. The guy simply can say whatever he wants and his supporters give him a pass.
His sister spoke in behalf of Sam Alito at his confirmation hearing Up to that point their records were identicle. The case you speak of was decided by an identicle case from Nebraska by the SCOTUS and they had no choice but to follow that decision.
Stop spreading Cruzs lies
Totally agree. It seems some of the people putting these hit pieces out are paid trolls or working on the campaigns.
It is polluting FR and certain freepers know exactly who they are and what they are doing.
We saw this when CRUZ questioned him about jis NEW Yawk Values, He wrapped himself in the 9/11 flag.
My wife told me that. You know who my wife is? Morgan Fairchild. That's right. My wife... Morgan Fairchild.
So is Cruz, since 1999.
Donald Trump gets a “pass”, as you say, because we all have used an incorrect word from time to time and we understand that on the important things, such as destroying the “protected” establishment that has been sucking this country dry for decades, Donald Trump not only gets it but he knows how to fix it.
Yeah, must be hacks! /s
Reading Trumpaloompa postings is like playing MadLibs (in more ways than one!):
when this (disparaging adjective) (sneering title) is (disparaging adjective) and (present participle verb) about (God) then its (positive adjective) news for (large group of people).
(disparaging nickname) is a (chilish insult).
“Trumpaloompa”
We should consolidate all these names for trump supporters in one place. It would be amusing and when folks who write about being “disparaged” by trump supporters need a disparaging term for Trump supporters they could reference the list and pick the best ones.
More evidence that Trump is utterly incapable of being President. But, because he channels their anger, and that’s all they want. They don’t care that he knows nothing about policy or government, they don’t care that he’s a liberal, they don’t care that he’s a pathological liar. He’s a celebrity and he’s rich. That’s all that counts to them.
Paul Strokenoff from Powerline is a clueless GOPe lackey.
Because he is going to make America great again. He is going to bring back jobs. He is going to build the wall and make Mexico pay for it.
How many more talking points do I need to muster up?
I am amazed at the fact that every time Trump is faced with historical artifacts, he displays an absolutely unbelievable ignorance as if he cannot see past his gold-plated signs and his peach-colored marble entry ways.
Case in point - When he was tearing down the building where Trump Tower now stands, the city of New York wanted him to save the historical art pieces on the outside of the building. He said okay, until he found out how much money it was going to cost to have them carefully removed. So, when no one from the city was looking he had his illegal crew smash them up.
Why is this important? Because if he cannot treat an old artifact that he can see with his own eyes correctly how is he going to treat our historical ideas that he can't see like what are written in our Constitution and the Bill of Rights?
When it is politically expedient he will smash them up.
That is what he does. Bada bing.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.