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We didn’t write much about her but lefty bloggers wrote plenty, and they shall not be pleased to learn that an ardent opponent of Bush’s counterterror apparatus somehow isn’t fit for high-level government work. With Justice Stevens and Stupak owning the weekend headlines, the timing for the White House was finally right: Ms. Johnsen, an Indiana University professor, was a strident critic of the Bush administration’s counterterrorism policies and the legal theories used to create them. Those views and her past work for a group that supports abortion rights led stiff opposition from Republicans and some Democrats. The opponents made...

President Obama's pick to head the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel is withdrawing her nomination amid Republican protests over past statements she made on abortion and national security. President Obama's pick to head the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel is withdrawing her nomination amid Republican protests over past statements she made on abortion and national security. Dawn Johnsen said she was dropping out of the process because her "nomination has met with lengthy delays and political opposition that threaten" her objective to restore the office to its "best nonpartisan traditions" and "prevent OLC from functioning at full strength."...

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama's nominee to head the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel has withdrawn her bid for confirmation after several Republicans objected to her criticism of the Bush administration's terrorist interrogation policies. Dawn Johnsen's withdrawal was disclosed Friday by White House officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a personnel matter.

Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., said Tuesday he will support the nomination of an Indiana University law professor to head the Obama administration’s internal law office. He is the first Republican to publicly declare his backing for Dawn Johnsen, whose selection to head the Office of Legal Counsel has grown into a fight about abortion rights and counterterrorism practices. Some Republicans have promised to try to block Johnsen’s confirmation either because of her support for abortion rights or because she criticized the legal justification used by the Bush administration for the torture of detainees. Lugar’s support does not guarantee the Senate...

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted along party lines to endorse Dawn Johnsen, Barack Obama’s nominee for Justice Department legal counsel, after a heated debate Thursday over Johnsen’s past statements about abortion and George W. Bush’s national security policies. Johnsen’s nomination heads to the Senate floor on a 12-7 committee vote amid repeated and intense GOP attacks that she would bring "partisan" and "extremist" views to her role as counsel. Johnsen’s nomination has already been blocked once by the Senate. The back-and-forth between Republican and Democratic senators Thursday was as much a referendum on Johnsen's qualifications for the Office of Legal...

Senate Judiciary Committee OKs Obama Pro-Abortion Pick Dawn Johnsen Washington, DC -- The Senate Judiciary has confirmed pro-abortion activist Dawn Johnsen, whom President Barack Obama appointed for a powerful Justice Department position. Johnsen's nomination now heads to the full Senate, where Democrats are battling to stop a filibuster against her. http://www.lifenews.com/nat6072.html

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...

It’s hard to call for an end to the culture wars when your own side is manning the barricades. President Obama is big on civility. He talks a very good game. But his nominee for a top slot at the Department of Justice--Dawn Johnsen--is a leading exponent of incivility. Johnsen worked with the ACLU for years. And she joined ARM--the so-called Abortion Rights Mobilization--to strip the Catholic Church of its tax-exempt status because of its pro-life advocacy. The Catholic Church eventually won that case--but not until it had spent years and millions of dollars defending itself. The Catholic Church was...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Dawn Johnsen has been on the top of the list of pro-abortion appointees from President Barack Obama that the pro-life movement has opposed. Now, it appears Johnsen, who could become a top assistant attorney general who advises Obama on legal matters, could receive a recess appointment. Meanwhile, conservatives Ken Blackwell and Ken Klukowski, write in a new editorial that Obama could be grooming Johnsen for an appointment to either the Supreme Court or the most influential appeals court in the nation.Republicans, joined by Nebraska Democrat Ben Nelson, have been successful in holding off Johnsen's nomination with...

WASHINGTON, D.C., February 5, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – After one year of waiting, Dawn Johnsen, Obama’s radical pro-abortion nominee to head the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), has seen her chances for Senate confirmation delayed once again. The Senate Judiciary Committee decided on Thursday that they had run out of time to consider her selection and agreed to postpone a vote to a later date. In fact, the sun may be setting altogether on Johnsen’s confirmation hopes, as Senate Republicans have expressed their opposition, and the seating of Massachusetts GOP Sen. Scott Brown brings the word “filibuster” back into the...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Most of the focus on the Senate last week revolved around the pro-abortion government-run health care bill the chamber passed on Christmas Eve. Meanwhile, Senate Republicans and Democrats squabbled over a pro-abortion nominee President Barack Obama as put forward for a crucial legal position. Dawn Johnsen, a law professor at Indiana University who is a former legal counsel for the pro-abortion group NARAL, is Obama's selection to head the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel.Her nomination has been delayed by Republicans who oppose her because she is strongly pro-abortion -- going as far as saying...

National liberal groups are pressing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to act on one of President Barack Obama’s most controversial nominees. Nearly 40 organizations have called on Reid to schedule a vote on Dawn Johnsen, Obama’s pick to lead the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, which is tasked with providing legal advice to the president. Several members of this coalition are frustrated that Johnsen’s nomination has languished in the Senate for nearly eight months despite Democrats’ control of 60 seats. Johnsen has run into strong Republican opposition because of her statements on sensitive political issues ranging from abortion...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The Obama administration has no plans to withdraw the nomination of pro-abortion activist attorney Dawn Johnsen, who would head the Office of Legal Counsel if approved by the Senate. However, the chances of her confirmation are sketchy because of her pro-abortion activism. White House attorney Gregory Craig on Friday indicated the Obama administration is standing behind the embattled nominee."I know of no plans to withdraw any nominees," President Obama's top in-house lawyer says, though he did not elaborate.Last week, Attorney General Eric Holder told reporters that Johnsen's nomination has been pending for "far too long,"...

Dawn Johnsen is making a tentative return to the classroom after seven months of waiting for the Senate to confirm her to one of the most politically sensitive posts in the Justice Department. Johnsen, nominated in January to head the Office of Legal Counsel, will teach a seminar this fall at Indiana University's Maurer School of Law. She will commute weekly from Washington, D.C., to Bloomington, Ind., while she continues to wait for confirmation, said Debbie O'Leary, a spokeswoman for the law school. The seminar will focus on sexuality and the law, so it will likely touch on one of...

A pro-life Congressman is pressing further with his request for President Barack Obama to withdraw his nomination of Dawn Johnsen. She is a former NARAL legal director Obama appointed to head the Office of Legal Counsel, which provides legal advice to the president. Johnsen has drawn strong opposition not only for her ties to the pro-abortion group but for filing a legal paper on its behalf with the Supreme Court equating pregnancy with slavery. Rep. Steve King, an Iowa Republican, was part of a group of 63 lawmakers to previously ask Obama to withdraw the nomination and he sent his...

Denver, Colo., Apr 29, 2009 / 09:44 am (CNA).- After the U.S. Senate voted 65-31 to confirm Kathleen Sebelius, a Catholic who strongly supports legal abortion, as the Secretary of Health and Human Services, pro-Obama and pro-life Catholics collided over the consequences of the appointment. Pro-lifers are promising to battle against the pro-abortion Dawn Johnsen, who awaits confirmation for the Office of Legal Counsel. “Catholics United,” a group that has so far justified all of President Obama’s pro-abortion decisions, issued a statement congratulating Sebelius and applauding the U.S. Senate “for today's decisive action.” Catholics United executive director Chris Korzen, who...

President Barack Obama recently named Dawn Johnsen as his choice for Assistant Attorney General to the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC). A 1986 graduate of Yale Law School, Johnsen arrives in Washington with impeccable leftist credentials. From 1987-88 she served as a staff counsel fellow for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), an organization that routinely has defended the rights of terrorists, illegal aliens, and enemies of America generally. For the ensuing five years, she was employed by the National Abortion & Reproductive Rights Action League (now known as NARAL Pro-Choice America).

Republicans are considering a filibuster aimed at blocking the confirmation of Dawn Johnsen, who conservatives claim once compared "forced pregnancy" with slavery. President Obama's nominee to head the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel once compared "forced pregnancy" with slavery. Now Republicans are considering a filibuster to block her confirmation. The controversy stems from comments made 20 years ago by Dawn Johnsen, a law professor at Indiana University, whose nomination is pending before the full Senate. In a brief filed when she was a lawyer with the National Abortion Rights Action League, Johnsen cited a footnote that said forcing women...

The president of the Susan B. Anthony List has characterized as “bizarre” the views of pro-abortion activist Dawn Johnsen as a vote nears in the U.S. Senate on her nomination as assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Counsel. "Dawn Johnsen does not represent mainstream America or the type of common ground abortion policy President Obama promised this nation," said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List. "Her bizarre characterizations of pregnancy as 'slavery' and mothers as 'losers in the contraceptive lottery' expose an unacceptable disdain for commonsense abortion restrictions and motherhood in general. Furthermore, Johnsen's opposition...

Quote: Opposing the Confirmation of Dawn Johnsen 4/1/2009 Concerned Women for America (CWA) is deeply concerned about President Obama's nomination of Dawn Johnsen for the Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Council. As a former legal director of NARAL from 1988 to 1993, she not only promoted abortion on demand, but fought all legitimate restrictions on the practice. She has stated the idea of making abortion rare as well as safe and legal is "nonsensical," and called mothers-to-be "fetal containers." Topping it off, as a board member for the American Constitution Society, Johnsen holds the view that the...