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Senate confirms Obama judge pick WASHINGTON - The Senate confirmed U.S. District Judge David Hamilton of Indiana yesterday for the Chicago-based U.S. Appeals Court for the Seventh Circuit, approving a nominee targeted by conservatives as a liberal activist.

The Senate voted 59 to 39 to confirm Judge David F. Hamilton to the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Judge Hamilton, who sits on the Federal District Court in Indiana, was President Obama’s first judicial nominee. Republicans opposed the nomination, announced March 19, because of decisions Judge Hamilton made relating to abortion and prayers in the Indiana Legislature. Senator Richard G. Lugar of Indiana was the only Republican to vote for his confirmation.

Senate Confirms David Hamilton, Obama's First Pro-Abortion Judicial Pick Washington, DC -- The Senate voted today 59-39 to confirm a pro-abortion federal judge President Barack Obama appointed to become a new appeals court justice. David Hamilton, of Indiana, is the first pro-abortion judge Obama selected, but he was held up for months because of his extreme views. Story, votes and action alert at http://www.lifenews.com/nat5689.htm

The Senate voted to end debate and move to a final vote on President Obama’s first judicial nominee, former ACORN fundraiser Judge David F. Hamilton, who disallowed invoking Jesus' name in prayers in the Indiana Legislature. Ten Republicans voted to allow a floor vote on Hamilton's nomination, thus assuring his confirmation. Hamilton, nominated to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, won a 70-29 cloture vote. All 29 who voted against cloture were Republicans. while 10 Republicans joined with all 60 Senate Democrats to vote for cloture and allow the confirmation vote to proceed. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchiso (R.-Tex.) did not...

WASHINGTON -- Resorting to a tactic he once denounced, Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Mobile, unsuccessfully sought today to block the nomination of a federal appeals court candidate through the parliamentary technique known as the filibuster. In a Senate floor speech this afternoon, Sessions, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, acknowledged his past opposition to filibusters of judicial nominees, but said that David Hamilton's record "indicates a lack of commitment to following the law." Hamilton, currently a federal trial judge from Indiana, has been tapped by President Barack Obama for a seat on the Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of...

Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Monday he plans to filibuster President Obama’s first judicial pick, Judge David F. Hamilton. Sessions told reporters in a briefing that he will vote “not to consider” the nomination. “I think I intend not to support going forward (with) Hamilton’s vote,” Sessions said, adding that each senator has to vote his own conscience. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has called for a cloture vote on the nomination Tuesday, which would force the Republican filibuster of Hamilton, whom Obama indicated is the kind of nominee he...

-- Vote could come as early as MondayHe has been called "extreme" by some. But to others, he's beyond extreme... he's a "Radical's Radical."  Whatever he is, he could become President Obama's next choice for the federal judiciary. This radical is Judge David Hamilton, and he's been nominated for a position on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Hamilton has made many political enemies on the right, seeing that his politics are to the far left of the political spectrum.  Oh yes, judges aren't supposed to be political, but this one has engaged in quite a bit of leftist activism....

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...

Senate to Vote on Obama Pro-Abortion Judicial Pick David Hamilton Next Week Washington, DC -- 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. http://www.LifeNews.com/nat5647.html ACTION: Contact your members of the Senate and express your opposition to Hamilton's nomination. You can find contact information for any senator at http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

Federal Bench: Yet another judicial nominee seeks to impose the "empathy" standard on the courts. He thinks judges should base rulings on a plaintiff's status, legislate from the bench and amend the Constitution. Indiana federal judge David Hamilton stands poised to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate to assume a seat on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals serving Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin. He's a former fundraiser for Acorn and a former leader of the Indiana chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. He is also another in a series of activist judges who believe the U.S. Constitution is not...

Judicial Sleight of Hand by: Brittany Fortier, July 06, 2009 Judge David Hamilton of the Southern District of Indiana, who has been nominated by the Obama administration to serve on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, proposes to bring an even more activist approach to the federal judiciary. For example, in A Woman’s Choice v. Newman, Hamilton issued an injunction against an Indiana law requiring abortion clinics to give women information about alternatives to abortion and requiring an 18-hour waiting period before obtaining an abortion, Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., points out. He called Hamilton’s ruling “questionable,” while the Seventh Circuit...

Republicans temporarily blocked Senate committee action on President Obama's first judicial appointment, attacking the nominee for rulings based on separation of church and state. Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, questioned the fitness of U.S. District Judge David Hamilton of Indiana to be promoted to a federal appeals court in Chicago. "Our members are concerned about this nominee," Sessions said at yesterday's committee meeting. "He has had a number of troubling rulings dealing with a series of prayers at the Indiana legislature." The Democratic-controlled panel, which will have the job of screening Obama's nominee...

The nomination of Judge David Hamilton by President Obama to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals should concern all Americans. His nomination raises several issues that should run up the red flag for any American who loves his country and believes in constitutional government. The first problem with Hamilton is that when he was appointed in 1994 by then-President Clinton, the American Bar Association rated him as unqualified. Judge Hamilton used to be a fund-raiser for ACORN, an acronym and an organization that have become synonymous with voter fraud. Judge Hamilton served on the board of the ACLU, a group...

President Obama has made a number of controversial appointments during his first 100 days in office, but perhaps none more so than activist judge and ACLU alumnus David Hamilton. In a nomination that may be voted on as early as this week, the president has chosen Hamilton to sit on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, an important Chicago-based bench whose jurisdiction extends over Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin. The appointment serves as an early warning that Obama’s judicial nominees, presented as “moderates,” will be anything but. Born in 1957, Hamilton began his judicial career when he was nominated by President...

Tomorrow 29 April, the Senate Judiciary Committee will meet to confirm, and likely forward to a full Senate vote the ANTI-JESUS, ANTI-LIFE Judge David Hamilton, the same bad judge who issued controversial rulings (banning public prayers offered "in Jesus name," and hastening the abortion of unborn children). But heroic Senator James Inhofe (R-OK), agrees we should oppose and filibuster Hamilton's nomination to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, the same court that reversed his liberal, activist, aggressive decisions for years. To support Sen. Inhofe, and stop Hamilton, we first need solidarity among any good conservatives or moderates seated on the...

Most Republicans boycotted the hearing Wednesday for President Barack Obama's first judicial nominee, allowing Democrats to pitch softballs to David Hamilton in his quest for a seat on a Midwestern appeals court. The committee will not vote on the nomination for several weeks. But with Republicans complaining of inadequate preparation time, the hearing signaled a rocky beginning to Obama's attempt to remake the federal judiciary. Hamilton, a U.S. district judge from Indiana, has issued a number of controversial rulings in more than 1,100 opinions and nearly 15 years on the bench. He struck down the use of sectarian prayer to...

The Senate has set a date for the Judiciary Committee to hold a confirmation hearing on Judge David Hamilton, the abortion advocate President Barack Obama appointed to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals as his first judicial pick. Leading pro-life groups are expected to launch an effort to defeat the nomination. The panel will hold a hearing on Wednesday on Hamilton, who an Indiana-based federal judge who drew the ire of pro-life advocates for issuing repeated rulings preventing an informed consent law from going into effect. Although Republicans have asked for a delay, it is unlikely their request will be...

Time to dust off the old filibuster. Dawn Johnson, sister-in-law of David Hamilton (the jurist who said it was illegal to begin a legislative session with a prayer in Jesus' name, but perfectly OK to pray to Allah), has been nominated to head the Office of Legal Counsel at the Department of Justice. You may remember Ms. Johnson for the quotation in the title of this post, in which she compared pregnancy to slavery. Brillyunt!

True to his campaign promises, President Barack Hussein Obama has picked a rabid judicial activist as his first federal court pick. Judge David Hamilton has been chosen by Obama to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit. Hamilton is precisely what Obama wants in a judge: Someone who ignores the Constitution and imposes his own liberal ideas on each case. Hamilton will have what Obama calls “empathy” for the poor, child molesters, abortionists, murderers, etc. Hamilton has ideal liberal credentials. He is a former ACLU lawyer and was a fundraiser for the corrupt group known as...

President Obama / Judge David Hamilton Washington D.C., Mar 27, 2009 / 04:04 am (CNA).- President Barack Obama’s first judicial nominee’s record includes judicial decisions which obstructed the enforcement of Indiana’s informed consent law requiring women to be told the risks of abortion.President Obama on March 17 nominated Judge David Hamilton to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeal. He is presently U.S. District Chief Judge for the Southern District of Indiana.Over his seven years as a district judge, Judge Hamilton ruled against the Indiana informed consent law which required abortionists to inform women about the risks of abortion. The...

In 2005, in Hinrichs v. Bosma, federal district judge (and now Seventh Circuit nominee) David Hamilton enjoined the Speaker of Indiana’s House of Representatives from permitting “sectarian” prayers to be offered as part of that body’s official proceedings. In so doing, Hamilton adopted one reasonable construction—though not the only one available—of the Supreme Court’s messy Establishment Clause rulings. (In denying a stay of Hamilton’s order pending appeal, the majority on a divided Seventh Circuit panel indicated that its “initial reading of the case law” strongly inclined it to Hamilton’s reading, but the Seventh Circuit ultimately reversed Hamilton on standing grounds.)...

Busy week, busy people, and somehow I missed Matthew Vadum's report revealing that President Obama's first judicial appointee, David Hamilton, is a former ACORN fundraiser. I didn't see it until it was mentioned in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review today. Michelle Malkin has a whole blog category devoted to "ACORN Watch," so how she missed this one I don't know, but Twitter is an amazing tool: rsmccain@michellemalkin Michelle, please prepare to blow a gasket http://tinyurl.com/cdcszj #tcot So we're now in gasket-blowing countdown mode. Will let you know when Mt. Malkin erupts.

President Obama's nomination of David Hamilton for the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals is, I suspect, the beginning of an avalanche of left-wing appellate court nominees. The next nominee may well be Maryland district court judge Andre Davis. Judge Davis has a reputation for making rulings favorable to criminal defendants and for having these rulings reversed, including by Clinton appointees to the Fourth Circuit. Is it wise politically for Obama to load the federal bench with left-liberals? A bi-partisan panel at the Heritage Foundation recently answered that question in the negative, according to this report by Quin Hillyer. The liberal...

Washington, DC -- President Barack Obama has nominated his first pro-abortion judicial candidate as he named David Hamilton as his first Appeals Court nominee. Hamilton is a former Clinton nominee whom Obama has appointed 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.

He did receive attention for two rulings striking down actions of conservatives in the Indiana legislature. In 2005, he made news by ruling that the legislature was prohibited from beginning its sessions with overtly Christian prayers. The decision drew widespread criticism in the legislature and across the state. On appeal, a panel of the Seventh Circuit dismissed the ruling, saying the people in whose name the American Civil Liberties Union had brought the suit lacked standing because they had not been harmed by the prayers. In 2008, Judge Hamilton struck down as unconstitutional an amendment to the state law requiring...

Barack Obama has selected a leftist, David Hamilton, to be his first nominee for the federal bench. Hamilton is Obama's nominee for a spot on the Seventh CIrcuit Court of Appeals. Appropriately enough, Hamilton reportedly was once a former fund-raiser for the radical activist outfit ACORN, a key Obama ally. He is also a former leader of the Indiana chapter of the ACLU. Hamilton's record as a federal district judge confirms his ultra-liberalism. Recently, he invalidated a law requiring the registration of sex offenders.

INDIANAPOLIS - A federal judge on Wednesday barred the Indiana House from opening its sessions with specifically Christian prayers, ruling that such prayers amount to "an official endorsement of the Christian religion." Judge David Hamilton advised House Speaker Brian Bosma that invocations given in the Legislature should not use the name of Jesus Christ or Christian terms such as savior. Of 53 opening prayers given in the House during the 2005 session, 41 were given by clergy identified with Christian churches and at least 29 mentioned Jesus Christ, according to court documents. Hamilton said that practice "amounts in practical terms...