Obama Pro-Abortion Judicial Pick David Hamilton Gets Senate Hearing Wednesday
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
April 27, 2009
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on Wednesday on President Barack Obama’s first pro-abortion judicial nomination. Obama named David Hamilton, a former Clinton federal district court nominee, to serve on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.
Hamilton was initially appointed by President Clinton to a district judgeship in Indiana in 1994 even though the ABA gave him a “not qualified” rating.
In that position, Hamilton issued a series of rulings over seven years that prevented Indiana from implementing its informed consent law that would give women information about abortion’s risks and alternatives.
Sen. Pat Leahy, a pro-abortion Vermont Democrat who is the chairman of the Senate panel, scheduled a hearing on Wednesday for Hamilton’s nomination after Republicans boycotted an earlier hearing saying they were not given enough time to prepare for it.
Hamilton has the backing of that Indiana’s Republican senator, Dick Lugar, but pro-life Sen. James Inhofe, an Oklahoma Republican, has already pledged to filibuster Hamilton’s nomination.
Meanwhile, pro-life Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, another Republican, has also indicated he is potentially voting against Hamilton and perhaps supporting a filibuster of his nomination.
“There is a growing frustration in the Judiciary Committee about a pattern of far-left nominees,” Sessions said. “I believe the president deserves deference, but he’s about used all the deference he’s going to get out of me.”
Hamilton found his decision against the Indiana informed consent law overturned by the appeals court where he may serve.
In fact, the 7th Circuit Court issued a statement chiding him for holding up the law.
"For seven years Indiana has been prevented from enforcing a statute materially identical to a law held valid by the Supreme Court in Casey, by this court in Karlin, and by the fifth circuit in Barnes," the appeals judges wrote in their decision.
"No court anywhere in the country (other than one district judge in Indiana [i.e., Hamilton]) has held any similar law invalid in the years since Casey," they added. "[I]t is an abuse of discretion for a district judge to issue a pre-enforcement injunction while the effects of the law (and reasons for those effects) are open to debate."
Although President Obama claims to want to reduce abortions, his appellate court pick prevented a law from going into effect that has been proven to reduce abortions when put in place in other states.
Prior to becoming a federal judge, Hamilton was the vice president for litigation and a board member of the Indiana branch of the ACLU, a top pro-abortion law firm.
ACTION: Contact your members of the Senate and express your opposition to Hamilton’s nomination. You can find contact information for any senator at https://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
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