Senate Will Vote on Obama Pro-Abortion Judicial Pick David Hamilton Next Week

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Nov 11, 2009   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

Senate Will Vote on Obama Pro-Abortion Judicial Pick David Hamilton Next Week

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
November 11
, 2009

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — The Senate will finally hold a vote on pro-abortion appeals court nominee David Hamilton, the first person President Barack Obama nominated for any court vacancy. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will call for a vote next week on the pro-abortion 7th Circuit Court of Appeals nominee.

Reid said on Monday that he will call for a cloture vote to cut off debate and end the filibuster-hold that has been placed on Hamilton’s nomination.

That will require 60 votes and Reid has little margin of error as Hamilton will likely be opposed by all or almost all of the 40 Republicans (except Hamilton Indiana’s Republican senator, Dick Lugar) and pro-life Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson — who will oppose him as well, possibly along with a handful of other Democrats.

Looking ahead to the vote, a coalition of pro-life and conservative activists have released a new statement calling on lawmakers to oppose Hamilton.

"Judge Hamilton fails to meet the qualifications for the high office to which he has been nominated, and his record demonstrates that he would decide cases on the basis of his politics and personal agenda instead of the Constitution," they say.

When President Clinton nominated David Hamilton to the district court, he was rated "not qualified" by the American Bar Association, they note.

"Judge Hamilton is an ideologue first and a jurist second. His rulings reflect his work for the ACLU. and his rulings on the District Court often reflect his bias toward extreme leftist ideology. If anything, Judge Hamilton’s record has confirmed fears that he would be a liberal judicial activist who would impose his radical ACLU-inspired agenda from the bench," they continue.

On abortion, the pro-life advocates say: "Judge Hamilton consistently sided with abortion-on-demand absolutists."

"Over a period of seven years, Judge Hamilton used his judicial role to wage a campaign against reasonable measures to reduce abortions, repeatedly ruling against a popular Indiana law requiring information and a waiting period before an abortion," they said.

The pro-life advocates who signed the letter include Wendy Wright of Concerned Women for America, Mathew D. Staver of Liberty Counsel, Marion Edwyn Harrison of Free Congress Foundation, Marjorie Dannenfelser of the Susan B. Anthony List, and Andrea Lafferty of the Traditional Values Coalition.

In June, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted along party lines to approve Hamilton with Democrats voting yes and Republicans no.

The appeals court to which Hamilton has been nominated handles cases involving pro-life issues from Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin.

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.

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."

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.

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.

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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