President Obama has renominated Indiana Law Professor Dawn Johnsen to head the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel. She is opposed by Republicans over her views on subjects like abortion. Much of the criticism over Johnson focuses on a single footnote in a brief — a further example of how the confirmation process works to winnow out anyone how has ever uttered an interesting or provocative thought.
Johnson was the legal counsel for NARAL Pro-Choice America. While I have had some disagreements with NARAL in the past over things like parental rights, it is hardly a subversive or extremist organization. Certainly, it is hard to see how people like John Yoo (who supported torture) or other Bush officials were viewed as well-suited for confirmation. It appears that you can support the torture of individuals and war crimes, but the right to choose is simply too extreme.
Much of the controversy surrounds a single footnote in a law review 20 years ago in a U.S. Supreme Court brief, where she wrote that forcing a woman to continue a pregnancy against her will was “disturbingly suggestive of involuntary servitude.” Conservative commentators have piled on the footnote as a foundation for opposing her confirmation, here.
It is a footnote that any academic might have written to raise a provocative analogy for the Court. Such points are often relegated to footnotes in law reviews or briefs. For members who criticize the treatment of Bob Bork, this seems like a curious basis for opposition of a nominee. Yet, Republicans are considering a filibuster, here.
For the latest on the story, click here.
BIL:
They may have even been a couple there:)
BIL:
“Twenty years ago, Southers got access to the personal records of the boyfriend of his ex-wife in a clear violation of privacy laws, which makes such review a misdemeanor criminal offense.Twenty years ago, Southers got access to the personal records of the boyfriend of his ex-wife in a clear violation of privacy laws, which makes such review a misdemeanor criminal offense.”
rc & eniobob,
DeMint is indeed a clown. But lest we forget, Erroll Southers has no compunction about violating a citizen’s civil rights and the lying about it to Congress either. DeMint is a full blown fascist tool, but there are valid reasons to keep Southers from the job at TSA.
http://jonathanturley.org/2010/01/03/nomination-goes-southers-tsa-nominee-caught-in-false-statement-to-congress/
How could she have been re-nominated …? oopsies
I could she have been re-nominated when the Senate is not in session? Didn’t he just promise to re-nominate? And if Obama really wanted her, why not a recess appointment?
I lived in SC when DeMint was running for his current seat. In the beginning of the campaign he pushed to have any public school teacher that was unmarried and pregnant or homosexual fired for “not being a proper role model”.
How he wasn’t laughed straight off the campaign trail I’ll never know. The fact that he won is terrifying. It is SC, after all.
I left the state quickly.
rcampbell:
“DeMint is holding up the apppointment of Obama’s choice as the head of the TSA because he doesn’t think people should have the right to organize into a labor union and negotiate fair pay and work conditions.”
He got busted the other day with his union theory,when he was reminded that the Police and Fireman and other civil employees who went into the world trade center on 911 and many of whom (may they rest in peace)lost their lives were union members.
DeMint is holding up the apppointment of Obama’s choice as the head of the TSA because he doesn’t think people should have the right to organize into a labor union and negotiate fair pay and work conditions.
Unnamed Republicans oppose this pro-choice nominiee from a pro-choice President who was elected on a platform that includes a pro-choice plank. How is it that the losers of the ’08 election think they get to set the agenda?
Contrasting Bork in this article is apt. I guess the wrongness of the viewpoint is in the eye of the beholder. To me any lawyer, who is a member of the Federalist Society should be viewed with suspicion for any government job. This person hardly sounds extreme in any sense, yet to people who believe evolution is controversial, extreme has a broad definition.
Let me see, this is Obamas Choice for OLC. The Senate Advises/Consents Confirms. Did I miss the part about imposition of will. What were any of Bushes OLC position on Abortion. Oh thats right they were too ill*informed to know what abortion was. They just knew that there was no money in it for them.
All joking aside. This is Obamas choice, let him surround himself with the cabinet of his choice. If they prove to be the fool then they suffer together.
ASIDE:
Will Hillary keep her job after it was divulged what Bill Clinton said about Obama to Teddy?