Obama Pro-Abortion Pick Dawn Johnsen May Have Worked Without Senate OK
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
February 18, 2010
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — The Obama administration is facing accusations that pro-abortion Justice Department nominee Dawn Johnsen has been doing the work at her powerful potential post without Senate approval. And an organization hoping to find out if that is the case has seen its FOIA requests refused.
Johnsen is the radical pro-abortion activist President Barack Obama named to head up the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel.
The post is one of the top legal positions in the federal government and frequently a stepping stone to the Supreme Court.
Johnsen’s nomination has been stalled by Republicans and at least one Democrat who are filibustering her nomination because of her out-of-the-mainstream pro-abortion views and on other political issues.
During the year that Johnsen’s nomination has languished, some political observers say she may have already engaged in some of the duties of the office despite a lack of authorization to do so.
Ed Whelan, a conservative writer at National Review, first alleged last October that Johnsen was getting involved where she shouldn’t.
"From what I hear from reliable sources, Johnsen has been involving herself in OLC’s decisions on hiring junior lawyers," he wrote at the time.
"If those reports are accurate, Johnsen’s actions would seem a serious violation of the Senate’s understanding of pre-confirmation etiquette—an etiquette that is especially punctilious for nominees who have generated controversy — and would give senators additional reason to oppose her nomination," Whelen continued.
To find out of the accusations were correct, Americans for Limited Government filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the Justice Department.
ALG indicated this week that the October 26 request has gone unheeded in spite of a 20-day statutory requirement.
"It’s been almost 3-and-a-half months now,” says ALG legal counsel Nathan Mehrens. “There is a diminishing window of opportunity for this information to even be useful.”
“The information is critical to senators who are being asked to confirm her or not, and if the Office of Legal Counsel does not respond to our FOIA request before then, or before Easter recess when she could be recess-appointed by Obama, it will be too late," he added.
Johnsen is such a pro-abortion radical that she has gone as far as saying pregnant women are subjected to a form of slavery and they should have unlimited abortion rights so they don’t become "fetal containers."
As the former legal director for the pro-abortion group NARAL, Johnsen argued in a brief to the U.S. Supreme Court that denying a pregnant woman the right to demand unrestricted abortion is to subject her to slavery, which was outlawed by the Thirteenth Amendment after the Civil War.
Sign Up for Free Pro-Life News From LifeNews.com
Daily Pro-Life News Report Twice-Weekly Pro-Life
News Report Receive a free daily email report from LifeNews.com with the latest pro-life news stories on abortion, euthanasia and stem cell research. Sign up here. Receive a free twice-weekly email report with the latest pro-life news headlines on abortion, euthanasia and stem cell research. Sign up here.
