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BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) — Democratic U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont says he believes that if Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh is seated, it would diminish the confidence Americans should have in the court. Leahy, a member of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, made the comments Monday in his Burlington office before flying back to Washington. He said questions that arose during the confirmation process about an alleged sexual assault in high school and bad behavior in college demonstrate what happens when "you try to rush through a judicial nominee." Leahy said he believes the allegations against Kavanaugh are "completely...

Washington never ceases to amuse. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D., Vt.), himself no stranger to leaking, is furious that Democrat staff memos on politicizing judicial confirmations were read and disclosed. The fact that Republicans (including myself) read Democrats' documents on an open server to which they had an affirmative grant of access does not stop his histrionics. Just as amusing, the Washington Post ran two recent editorials indignant that Republicans had read and leaked the Democratic memos. But where was the media sanctimony when, during the Clarence Thomas nomination battle, the Post took illegal possession of the Anita Hill documents, or...

Not just content to win elections, the Left is trying to destroy its political opponents by calling for criminal prosecution of Bush administration officials for political and legal decisions the Left does not like. Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy is leading this banana republic style campaign to criminalize policy decisions made by a duly elected previous administration.

A Glimmer of Hope Dear A-Letter Reader:In the April 17, 2002 A-Letter, I wrote about an obscure type of treaty called a "MLAT," or Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty. MLATs give governments the right to gather evidence and seize assets without a judicial hearing and in some cases, with no right of appeal to any court. The treaties essentially override all confidentiality laws that might otherwise apply. And their one-sidedness is an invitation to serious abuse.The US has more than 50 MLATs in effect, more than any other country. Since the first MLAT came into effect in 1977, they have been...

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...

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”...

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...

Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), together with ten House members, has asked the US State Department to investigate claims that Israel has committed “gross violations of human rights,” and depending on the results to cut military aid to the Jewish state. The letter addressed to Secretary of State John Kerry was dated February 17, and was published by Politico on Tuesday night after the news site received it from “an organization that provided input for it.” Leahy’s letter targets both Israel and Egypt, and is significant because the senator authored a law conditioning US military aid to foreign countries based on...

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, predicted on Sunday that if Republicans block President Barack Obama's nomination to replace the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, voters will give Democrats a majority in the Senate in the next election. "I think what we ought to do is nominate somebody," Leahy told Dana Bash on CNN's "State of the Union" show, one day after the death of Scalia at age 79. "If the Republican leadership refuses to even hold a hearing, I think that is going to guarantee they lose control of the Senate, because I...

It’s not often that a U.S. government agency gets caught red-handed abiding by its charter and performing its publicly-avowed and legislatively-approved duties. But last week the AP "broke" a long and breathless story from Havana that nailed the USAID (United States Agency for International Development) for just that. In their own words, "a secret plan aimed at undermining Cuba’s communist government," was courageously exposed by the AP’s intrepid Havana bureau. Such is the magnitude of the scandal that a red-faced and snarling Senator Patrick Leahy is now chairing hearings on Capitol Hill where he grills USAID director Rajiv Shah on...

An unknown Republican Senator is blocking a bill that will require police to obtain a search warrant before accessing emails and online messages. The Hill reported: An anonymous Republican senator has delayed a vote on legislation that would require police to obtain a warrant before accessing emails and other online messages. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) pushed for a vote on the bill before Congress left for its August recess. He secured unanimous support from Democrats, but at least one Republican objected to the bill, according to a Democratic Senate aide. Leahy had hoped to fast-track the bill...

A report from CNet today claims that a bill up for a vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee next week that was supposed to increase privacy protections around our email would instead do the opposite, allowing many federal agencies to gain access to your email without a warrant. However, my reporting suggests the article is inaccurate. Here’s what CNet says: [snip - see below] This would be particularly disturbing in the wake of the scandal surrounding Generals Petraeus and Allen, whose emails were exposed during a wide-ranging and questionable FBI investigation and have brought the discussion of limits on the...

Proposed law scheduled for a vote next week originally increased Americans' e-mail privacy. Then law enforcement complained. Now it increases government access to e-mail and other digital files.

Has President Obama's disrespectful attitude toward the United States Supreme Court caused a trickledown effect among the Democratic leadership in Congress, or was Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy's recent invective against Chief Justice John Roberts self-generated? You will recall that in April, President Obama launched a salvo against the court about a pending case -- concerning Obamacare -- seeking to either intimidate the justices into upholding the law or lay a foundation for political criticism should they strike it. At a news conference, Obama said, "Ultimately, I am confident that the Supreme Court will not take what would...

The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee wants Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. to find out if taxpayer dollars received by Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s office through a federal grant program were used by his deputies to illegally detain Hispanics whom the government alleges were the victims of racial profiling. If so, Sen. Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, wants the Justice Department to consider ways of getting the money back - a total that could exceed $25 million. “I urge the department to take all appropriate steps to determine whether taxpayer dollars - have been used in connection with the...

... If (Gaddafi) wins the current civil war, he will kill his enemies. A bloodbath is coming...He can be stopped, though. When President Ronald Reagan retaliated for the La Belle attack by bombing Libya, Gaddafi got the message and quieted down. When Gaddafi saw that America went after Saddam Hussein’s (suspected) weapons of mass destruction, he rid himself of his own. He even paid reparations for the Pan Am 103 bombing. Moammar Gaddafi is a madman, but not mad. ...it would be productive if the Obama administration got its marbles out of its mouth. Its pronouncements thus far have been...

Leahy fears Gitmo will stay open By MATT NEGRIN | 03/07/11 6:18 PM Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy warned late Monday that the White House’s order on renewing Guantanamo Bay military commissions will jeopardize the closing of the prison that President Obama has promised to shutter. In a statement released in the evening, Leahy, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said Obama’s executive order “has done little to change” the damage that the Guantanamo prison has had on the American judicial system. “The process outlined in the Executive Order falls far short of core constitutional values by failing to provide judicial...

Democrats demand CIA detainee documents By LAURIE KELLMAN, Associated Press Writer 53 minutes ago A Senate Democrat who will chair its Judiciary Committee next year asked the Justice Department to release newly acknowledged documents setting U.S. policy on how suspects in the war on terrorism are detained and interrogated. "The American people deserve to have detailed and accurate information about the role of the Bush administration in developing the interrogation policies and practices that have engendered such deep criticism and concern at home and around the world," Sen. Patrick Leahy (news, bio, voting record), D-Vt., wrote Attorney General Alberto Gonzales....