In the House, Several bills may be taken up today and throughout the week, pending bills were identified yesterday.
Yesterday, the Senate voted 89-0 to confirm Edgardo Ramos to be U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of New York.
Today, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) forced a cloture vote on President Obama’s controversial nominee to the DC Circuit Court of Appeals, Caitlin Halligan. At noon, Senate Republicans opposed her confirmation, and with bipartisan support the vote failed, 54-45. Obviously, the battle over Halligan may not be over as it should be. Reid now knows the pressure points and who he needs to go after to get more votes. It would be wise for him to do what is best for the U.S. and consider this domination now DOA. To provide a better understanding of her radical positions, you will find more info below and a separate previous posting on Judicial Nominee Caitlin Halligan’s Controversial Record on the 2nd Amendment and the War on Terror.
As Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell explained, “In Ms. Halligan’s view, the courts aren’t so much a forum for the even-handed application of the law as a place where a judge can work out his or her own idea of what society should look like. As she once put it, the courts are a means to achieve ‘social progress’, with judges presumably writing the script. On the Second Amendment: As solicitor general of New York, Ms. Halligan advanced the dubious legal theory that those who make firearms should be liable for third parties who misuse them criminally.”
In a 2003 decision discussing her theory, the New York court of Appeals wrote that her complaint, on behalf of then-Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, “claims that illegally possessed handguns are a common-law public nuisance.” But the Court dismissed the idea, saying, “The New York Court of Appeals has never recognized a common-law public nuisance cause of action based on allegations like those in this complaint. Moreover, other jurisdictions have dismissed public nuisance claims against firearms manufacturers on similar or other grounds… In light of the foregoing, we believe it is legally inappropriate, impractical and unrealistic to mandate that defendants undertake, and the courts enforce, unspecified measures urged by plaintiff in order to abate the conceded availability and criminal use of illegal handguns.”
In a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Pat Leahy (D-VT) and ranking member Chuck Grassley (R-IA), the NRA opposed Halligan’s nomination writing, “Our opposition is based on Ms. Halligan's attacks on the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding Americans. Specifically, she worked to undermine the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA), enacted in 2005 with strong bipartisan support. This legislation was critically important in ending a wave of lawsuits sponsored by anti-gun organizations and governments, which sought to blame firearms manufacturers and dealers for the criminal misuse of their products by third parties. . . . After passage of the PLCAA, Ms. Halligan participated in the legal attack on the PLCAA. The state [of NY] filed an amicus curiae brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit supporting New York City's attack on the law's constitutionality. The arguments in that brief were ultimately rejected by the Second Circuit, as they have been by every other appellate court (and every federal court at any level) that has considered the issue.”
On terrorism issues, Halligan joined a New York City Bar Association report arguing, “[C]riminal prosecutions in the federal courts … should be the preferred forum for future terrorism cases.” She also filed an amicus brief on behalf of the terrorist Ali Saleh Kahlah Al-Marri, who, according to the AP, “admitted he trained in al Qaeda camps and stayed in al Qaeda safe houses in Pakistan between 1998 and 2001 . . . [and] also admitted meeting and having regular contact with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, and with Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi, who allegedly helped the Sept. 11 hijackers with money and Western-style clothing.” In her brief, Halligan argued that the president did not have the authority to detain Al-Marri under the post-9/11 Authorization for Use of Military Force. But, in 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled, in Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, that the President has the legal authority to detain as enemy combatants individuals who are associated with AQ.
Sen. McConnell concluded, “Ms. Halligan has time and again sought to push her own views over and above those of the courts or those of the people, as reflected in the law. Ms. Halligan’s record strongly suggests that she wouldn’t view a seat on the U.S. Appeals Court as an opportunity to adjudicate, even-handedly, disputes between parties based on the law, but instead as an opportunity to put her thumb on the scale in favor of whatever individual or group or cause she happens to believe in. We shouldn’t be putting activists on the bench.”
Tags: Washington, D.C., Us Senate, confirmation votes, Edgardo Ramos, NY, Caitlin Halligan, DC Circuit Court of Appeals, liberal activism, Richard Cordray, Dodd-Frank Czar To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
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