Posted on 12/12/2013 1:24:58 PM PST by SeekAndFind
At about 1 a.m. last night, the Senate voted 5144 to approve Cornelia Pillard to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. The vote occurred in the middle of the night because the GOP, asserting its minority rights that the Democratic majority has significantly curtailed, is holding a talkathon to drag out the process of voting on the nominations before the Senate. This really bothered Rachel Maddow:
CLICK ABOVE LINK TO WATCH THE VIDEO OF RACHEL MADDOW's RANT...
Unfortunately for Ms. Borders on Obsessed with the Facts Maddow, Nina Pillard is, objectively, quite far from a noncontroversial nominee. Shes probably the most extreme of President Obamas judicial nominees this year, and has attracted plenty of controversy among the circles that debate D.C. Circuit Court candidates which is supposed to include the U.S. Senate. Many of the other nominees were indeed not too scandalous, though Im not sure youll have many other chances to see an MSNBC host disparage the whos nominated to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
But Pillard is just the sort of person that does deserve a great deal of scrutiny from the Senate, and now just needs a party-line bare-majority vote, thanks to Majority Leader Harry Reids unilateral change to the chambers rules in November. Most Americans may not know just how far out of the mainstream her views are, but heres a simple piece of evidence: In 2011, she commented at a Georgetown University event on a case before the Supreme Court, Hosanna-Tabor vs. EEOC, in which a Lutheran church was defending churches right to be exempt from normal employment-discrimination law. Pillard said the following, [The notion that] the Constitution requires deference to Church decisions about who qualifies as a minister . . . seems like a real stretch. . . . The Lutheran Churchs position here is a substantial threat to the American rule of law it would effectively empower any religion to create its own autonomous Vatican City-style regime. . . . It is hard to see the Supreme Court deciding that that is what the First Amendment law requires.
The Supreme Court decided in favor of the churchs protections 90. That is, not one of the four (or so) liberal justices on the Supreme Court agreed with a position that Pillard thinks is hard to see as anything but the right reading of the First Amendment. This wasnt a bad prediction, as she disingenuously told the Senate Judiciary Committee this was her view of the law.
Her legal views, which should worry not just conservatives people with perfectly moderate views too, have come out in more formal ways: In a 2006 law-review article, Pillard argued that the Constitutions guarantee of equal protection meant that courts should consider whether sex-education classes meet a certain standard of egalitarian values. She worries that many programs illegally promote retrograde understandings about gender and sex roles, and may not affirm the value of sexual pleasure for females as well as males in a way that satisfies equal-protection law (abstinence-only education, she contends, intrinsically involves stereotyping the sexes). When questioned about this by Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Pillard denied that shed done so, despite the clear argument she advances that it would be within the proper role of courts to examine existing sex-ed curricula and determine whether they promote inadequately equal understandings of sexuality. As NRs editors wrote in September, Her application of equal protection asks judges to police curricula not only for excessive stereotyping but also for insufficient affirmation of what amounts to feminist dogma. Such views, along with her longstanding and well-established desire to yoke American courts to legal transnationalism and her dishonesty before the Senate Judiciary Committee, seem to call into question, if not invalidate, her worthiness as a federal judge.
But in Harry Reids Senate, last nights 51 votes will have her seated on the second most important court in the nation, which happens to be underworked and in no need of new judges.
Maddow was right that many of the nominees under consideration this week arent themselves controversial but some of them are, and deserve thorough consideration, if not rejection, which is why the minority is entrusted with the power to force that process. Or rather, was. This weeks extended debateis one way to underscore that the minority now has substantially diminished power to ensure that a nominee such as Pillard is properly examined.
And those uncontroversial nominees, by the way, are being pushed through in a controversial way Reid is pushing nominees to bipartisan regulatory boards (such as the EEOC, but also a host of others) without waiting for a matching Republican nominee to be put forth by Senate Republicans, as is customary in the Senate.
Another leftist loon to assist Barry in his destruction of America.
Anybody placed in any kind of office in the middle of the night, in any capacity, within the federal government, has only been placed there, as another dildo to be utilized against John Q./ Jane Q. Public, period.
Just the fact that Obama nominated her tells me she isn’t worth a pint of stale owl pee. Rachel Madcow ranting for her just adds to that conclusion.
It seems she needed the Nuclear vote to make it to 51-44.
Elections have consequences, perhaps the most grave of which are judicial appointments. I don’t think most voters realize this.
Padding the legal system with lifetime appointed left wing nuts will ensure favorable rulings for neo Marxists for years
This really bothered Rachel Maddow: CLICK ABOVE LINK TO WATCH THE VIDEO OF RACHEL MADDOW’s RANT
The Madcow is bothered by anything that does not promote perversion.......
This really bothered Rachel Maddow: CLICK ABOVE LINK TO WATCH THE VIDEO OF RACHEL MADDOW’s RANT
The Madcow is bothered by anything that does not promote perversion.......
This GOP Talkathon is, although well intentioned, full of holes, and obviously can be evaded by Dirty Harry and the like. The best the GOP can do, (those who really do believe in conservative ideas) would be to PUBLICIZE who is being nominated. Educate the public online, on TV, on cable, Fox and Friends, SPEAK UP BEFORE IT’s TOO LATE, not just after the fact. Educate your peers!!! We will be listening.
Hard to tell. Is that a man or a woman?
Her head is bent to the left exactly like the William Ayers mug shot.
Can a conservative administration eliminate some of the seats on district courts, as Newt suggested?
Who knows. Thing is IF it can be done the reps don’t have the balls to do it.
Are there any good looking liberal women?
That “girl” wasn’t only dropped as when she was a baby she was dribbled.
However, the social and political culture seems to have deteriorated to the point that no viable "good" candidate exists in the majority of races, certainly including presidential. They differ only in degree of unsuitability, and often by not that much.
Another LIAR—she’ll fit right in.
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