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Graham vs. Holder at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings, Holder gets his a** handed to him (Video)

This broke earlier this morning. Bank of America Corp. is suspending its work with the housing affiliate of embattled community organizing group ACORN. The decision comes as three Republicans in Congress ask Bank of America and 13 other financial institutions to give Congress a complete accounting of their dealings with the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now or its affiliates.

The Senate Judiciary Committee has voted to approve Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor to be the first Hispanic justice. The committee voted 13-6 Tuesday morning to send Sotomayor's nomination to the full Senate, where she's expected to be confirmed easily next week. Skip over this content Just one Republican, South Carolina's Lindsey Graham, joined Democrats in voting for President Barack Obama's first high court nominee. The panel's chairman, Vermont Democrat Patrick Leahy, called Sotomayor a restrained, fair and impartial judge who has not favored any one group of people over another. But the top Republican, Alabama's Jeff Sessions, said her...

Thank you Mr. Chairman. I testify today not as a wise Latina woman, but as an American who believes that skin color and national origin should not determine who gets a job, promotion, or public contract, or who gets into college or receives a scholarship. My message today is straightforward, Mr. Chairman: Do not vote to confirm this nominee. I say this with some regret, because I believe Judge Sotomayor’s personal story is an inspiring one, which proves that this is truly a land of opportunity where circumstances of birth and class do not determine whether you can succeed. Unfortunately,...

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) will take over the ranking member position on the Senate Judiciary Committee after striking a deal with his more senior colleagues over the weekend, sources confirm to The Hill. Sessions and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) reached the deal that will allow the Alabama Republican to take over for Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.), whose departure from the GOP last week left the committee without a ranking member. Under terms of the deal, Sessions will serve as ranking member until the 112th Congress, when he will take over the ranking member post on the Senate Budget Committee. Current...

41 Senate Republicans Send Letter To President Obama Urging Consultation On Judicial Nominees March 2, 2009 President Barack H. Obama The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, D.C.  20500 Dear Mr. President: We look forward to working with you as you consider nominees for the federal judiciary.  Unfortunately, the judicial appointments process has become needlessly acrimonious.  We would very much like to improve this process, and we know you would as well.  It is in that spirit that we write early on to suggest two steps your Administration can take to achieve that shared goal.   First, in the beginning...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee approved a pro-abortion nominee President Barack Obama has put forward for Deputy Attorney General. The panel gave the okay to David Ogden even though pro-life groups opposed him because of his pro-abortion views.

The House Judiciary Committee is not likely to vote on a contempt resolution against Karl Rove until late this month, according to the panel's chairman. Rove, the former White House deputy chief of staff and top political advisor to President Bush, refused to appear today before a subcommittee of the Judiciary Committee to testify on the "politicization" of the Justice Department under the current administration. Citing a claim of executive privilege by Bush, Rove did not show up for today's hearing despite a committee subpoena. Conyers and Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the Commercial and Administrative Law subcommittee, rejected...

It's not every day that a Member of the world's greatest deliberative body stops by to chat about his plans "to close the Senate down." Especially if his name is Arlen Specter. But the Pennsylvania Republican tells us he's concluded that this is the only way to prod Democrats to vote on, or even hold confirmation hearings on, President Bush's appeals-court nominees. A look at the numbers explains why the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee is spitting mad. In the last two years of Bill Clinton's Administration, when Mr. Specter was in the chairman's seat, the Republican-controlled Senate...

Democrats are playing political games with national security and mongering phony scandal. It amounts to a program of harassment of the Bush Administration's efforts to defend us against attack by uncovering terror plots using intelligence agencies

California Sen. Dianne Feinstein is asking the Senate Judiciary Committee to fully review the case of two Border Patrol agents facing 20 years in prison for violating a drug smuggler's civil rights. Rep. Walter B. Jones, R-N.C., went even further, sending a letter to President Bush asking him to personally review the case. Border Patrol agent Ignacio Ramos broke his 18-month silence on his altercation with the drug smuggler, Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila, in an exclusive interview with the Daily Bulletin. His co-worker, Jose Alonso Compean, has been asked by his attorney to not speak to the media while his sentencing hearing...

MARRIAGE PROTECTION AMENDMENT (MPA) By Matt Daniels Senate Joint Resolution 1 in the 109th Congress THE CONSEQUENCES OF FAILURE I. LEGAL CONSEQUENCES Invalidation of all state marriage amendments (Nebraska amendment invalidated in federal court) Invalidation of over 1,000 federal laws concerning welfare, education, immigration, taxation, the armed forces, federal benefits, loan programs, and other policy areas (General Accounting Office Report prepared for Senator Frist) Invalidation of thousands of state laws -- for every state in the nation -- concerning welfare, education, taxation, state benefits programs, and many other substantive state policy areas. II. CONSEQUENCES FOR PUBLIC EDUCATION Curricula in all...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. Senate panel advanced a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage on Thursday as the committee chairman shouted "good riddance" to a Democrat who walked out of the tense session."If you want to leave, good riddance," The Senate Judiciary Chairman, Republican Arlen Specter, told Wisconsin Democratic Sen. Russell Feingold, who refused to participate because, he said, the meeting was not sufficiently open to the public."I've enjoyed your lecture too. See you later, Mr. Chairman," Feingold told the Pennsylvania senator before storming out of the private room where the meeting took place. The testy exchange highlighted tensions over...

  Courting Chaos: Senate Proposal Undermines Immigration Lawby Kris W. Kobach WebMemo #1083 May 17, 2006 |   | Once again, the Senate Judiciary Committee has rolled out a massive amnesty for more than 11 million illegal aliens. Rewarding aliens who have violated federal law is bad enough. However, the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act (CIRA, S.2611) does much more than that. Buried deep inside the bill—beginning at page 540—are provisions that would radically alter our immigration courts, making them far less likely to enforce and implement the law faithfully. Not surprisingly, these items have not caught the attention of...

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) and conservative members of his panel have reached agreement on legislation that may determine the legality of the National Security Agency’s (NSA) surveillance program, GOP sources say. Specter has mollified conservative opposition to his bill by agreeing to drop the requirement that the Bush administration seek a legal judgment on the program from a special court set up by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) of 1978. Instead, Specter agreed to allow the administration to retain an important legal defense by allowing the court, which holds its hearings in secret, to review the...

October 2005 Comments to US House Judiciary Committee on immigration: TITLE Integrating Immigrants into the American National Community; Reforming Dual Citizenship in the United States EXCERPT In Vicente Fox's 2000 presidential campaign, his National Action Party and Cardenas's Party of the Democratic Revolution organized caravans to take Mexican immigrants to polling places in Mexico from cities as far-flung as New York and Yakima, Wash. 19 With the new absentee voting law, this will no longer be necessary and energy and attention can be better paid to getting out the Mexican vote -- in the United States. Because the election process...

Despite the collapse of a bipartisan deal on immigration, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee expressed optimism Sunday that senators can pass a bill when they return from vacation. "I think tempers will cool over a two-week period," said Sen. Arlen Specter (news, bio, voting record), R-Pa. "And also, there are going to be some expressions by many people very unhappy with the Senate not passing a bill and very unhappy with the House bill" that would make being an illegal immigrant a felony. "There's a real risk of significant political fallout here, and members of the Senate think...

I am sick of this dishonest media whore. 1) FAILURE TO EXPEDITE JUDICIAL NOMINATIONS 2) PROMOTING AMNESTY FOR ILLEGAL ALIENS 3) OPPOSING EXTENSION OF THE TAX CUTS 4) MORE PRO ABORTION THAN NARAL 5) SAYING THE TERRORIST SURVIELLANCE IS UNCONSTITUTIONAL 6) SAYING IMPEACHMENT IS ALWAYS AN OPTION 7) ALLOWING FOR A HEARING ON FEINGOLD'S CENSURE OF THE PRESIDENT 8) NOW CALLING FOR BUSH AND CHENEY TO ANSWER QUESTIONS ON LEAKS Arlen Specter is a plague on this nation and the Republican Party. This media whore needs to hear the message from conservatives nationwide. Specter Contact Info: http://specter.senate.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=Offices.Home

WASHINGTON - The Senate Judiciary Committee approved election-year immigration legislation Monday that clears the way for millions of undocumented workers to seek U.S. citizenship without having to first leave the country. After days of street demonstrations that stretched from California to the gounds of the U.S. Capitol, the committee also voted to strip out proposed criminal penalties for residents found to be in this country illegally. The panel's vote cleared the way for the full Senate to begin debate Tuesday on the emotional immigration issue. "All Americans wanted fairness and they got it this evening," said Sen. Edward M. Kennedy...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Republican-led U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee announced on Friday it would hold a hearing next week on a call by a Democratic lawmaker to censure President George W. Bush for his domestic spy program. In a one-sentence notice, the panel said the hearing would be held next Friday by the order of its chairman, Republican Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, who has opposed censure. Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin introduced a resolution last week calling for a Senate censure of the president, charging that Bush's warrantless domestic surveillance program was illegal. Revelation of the once-secret program...

(CNSNews.com) - Fifty-six members of the U.S. House on Friday urged House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), to fight the renewal of a provision in the Voting Rights Act that mandates multilingual ballots. "We believe these ballot provisions encourage the linguistic division of our nation and contradict the 'Melting Pot' ideal that has made us the most successful multi-ethnic nation on earth," the 56 House members wrote. Only one of those signing the letter is a Democrat - Collin Peterson of Minnesota. The letter refers to special provisions added to the Voting Rights Act (VRA) in 1975 that are...

WASHINGTON - The Judiciary Committee favorably recommended Samuel Alito's Supreme Court nomination to the full Senate on a party-line vote Tuesday, ensuring prospects the conservative jurist will join the high court bench. All 10 Republicans voted for Alito, while all eight Democrats voted against him. The partisan vote was almost preordained, with 15 of the 18 senators announcing their votes even before the committee's session began. The full Senate expects to take a final vote on Alito's nomination before the end of the week. That vote is also expected to follow along party lines, with only one Democrat — Ben...

The Democrats on the Judiciary Committee are looking at the next evolutionary stage and it’s not pretty. About 250 million years ago, the Permian extinction wiped out almost all creatures on the land and in the sea, ending one of the most prolific bursts of life on the planet and was thought to have been caused by a combination of glaciations, the formation of a super-continent and an enormous outpouring of lava from the Siberian traps.

Joe Biden, Ted Kennedy Had Racial Covenants It's particularly ironic that Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee would try to smear Samuel Alito as racist for his 1980s membership in a Princeton organization that was against affirmative action - especially given the backgrounds of Alito's leading critics on the Committee. In fact, Senators Ted Kennedy and Joe Biden have some significant exposure of their own on the racial sensitivity front, given the fact that both their families owned homes that were restricted by "racial covenants" from being sold to blacks, Jews or other minorities. The startling news emerged in 1986,...

Let's have some fun with statistics, shall we? In the senate judiciary committee hearings this morning, Ted Kennedy clumsily attempted to make use of a Cass Sunstein "study"... Writing for National Review Online two days ago, Byron York pointed out in advance that, with all its caveats, qualifications, and disclaimers, Sunstein's report is useful "to prove virtually nothing." Well, it does prove that if a bloated liberal senator gives Cass Sunstein enough money, in a very short time that scholar of unimpeachable credentials will produce a study of sufficient rigor to convince the bloated senator that what the bloated senator...

We knew it was coming; that is, the attempt to impugn Sam Alito by using the race card against him. You see, it’s a given in Washington, New York, Hollywood, and other liberal enclaves that conservatives are, by nature and philosophy, racist. And conservative presidents, as a matter of course, nominate racists to the bench — Bob Bork, Clarence Thomas (even though he is black, but that didn’t matter), Charles Pickering, Bill Pryor, and, now, Sam Alito. They’ve all been targeted this way. Ironically, the party that defended slavery in the 19th century and segregation for much of the 20th...

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said Sunday that she will support a Democratic filibuster of Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito if it becomes clear he'll vote to overturn Roe vs Wade. Asked if she would consider it "filibuster material" if she finds out that Alito intends to vote against Roe, Feinstein told "Fox News Sunday": "If I believe that he was going to go in there and overthrow Roe, the question is, most likely, yes." The California Democrat, who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said that any High Court nominee who thought Roe had been "improperly decided" was outside the...

WASHINGTON -- The 18 senators who will question Samuel Alito at confirmation hearings next week are taking on their second Supreme Court nominee in less than four months. After voting to recommend John Roberts as chief justice in September, the members of the Senate Judiciary Committee are turning to a veteran federal appeals court judge who was chosen by President Bush to succeed retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. The committee holds hearings on all nominees for federal judgeships and decides whether to send their nominations to a confirmation vote in the full Senate. Last September, the panel voted 13-5 in...

WASHINGTON — With the confirmation hearing for Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito less than a week away, his critics are making every effort to whip up opposition to Alito's joining the court. But ever since the defeat of Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork a little more than 18 years ago, conservative activists have vowed not to let such critics go unanswered. The Senate Judiciary Committee will begin the confirmation hearing process for Alito, an appeals court judge. Believing that most Americans are now past the diversion of the holidays, several interest groups for and against Alito are now picking up...

He wants to go public on what U.S. knew before 9/11 By Margo Rutledge Kissell Dayton Daily News A Wright State University graduate is at the heart of a brewing controversy in Washington. The issue: Whether defense experts identified Mohamed Atta and three other Sept. 11 hijackers a year before the terrorist attacks.The issue: Whether defense experts identified Mohamed Atta and three other Sept. 11 hijackers a year before the terrorist attacks. Anthony "Tony" Shaffer, 43, an Army Reserve lieutenant colonel and veteran intelligence operative, claims they did. More than half the members of Congress — including U.S. Reps. David...

Senate Judiciary Dems Take Aim at Alito Nov 09 6:51 PM US/Eastern Email this story By DAVID ESPO AP Special Correspondent WASHINGTON Senate Democrats issued their first coordinated challenge to Judge Samuel Alito's nomination to the Supreme Court on Wednesday, seeking extensive records about his participation in a 2002 appeals case despite a six-figure investment with one of the defendants. In a letter to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the eight Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee said Alito had promised the panel in 1990 he would "disqualify myself from any cases involving the Vanguard companies." The letter...

The recent announcement by Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Arlen Specter that confirmation hearings on Judge Samuel Alito have been postponed until January was only the latest in a series of painful examples of what happens when Senate Republicans wimp out.Senator Specter did not wimp out. The Senate Republican "leadership" wimped out when they made him chairman of the Judiciary Committee after he had fired a shot across the bow of his own President, right after the election, publicly warning President Bush not to nominate anyone to the Supreme Court who would stir up controversy in the Senate.That was the time...

The Republican-controlled Senate will begin hearings Jan. 9 on Judge Samuel Alito's appointment to the Supreme Court, spurning President Bush's call for a final confirmation vote before year's end. "It simply wasn't possible to accommodate the schedule that the White House wanted," Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said late Thursday. He outlined a schedule that envisions five days of hearings, followed by a vote in committee on Jan. 17 and the full Senate on Jan. 20. Bush nominated Alito on Monday to fill the seat of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who has often held the...

Senator Sam Brownback says he and other conservatives have ``a great deal of skepticism'' about Harriet Miers, President Bush's latest nominee for the Supreme Court. The Kansas Republican is disappointed Bush did not pick a candidate with more of a track record. He had urged Bush to nominate someone who opposes the Roe vs. Wade decision legalizing abortion. Brownback compared the nomination of Miers -- Bush's White House counsel -- to that of Supreme Court Justice David Souter. Souter was nominated to the high court by the first President Bush and was believed to be a conservative, but he later...

...Schumer argued yesterday "being brilliant and accomplished" didn't make Roberts qualified. Why? Because "there are many who would use their considerable talents and legal acumen to set America back. So, while legal brilliance is to be considered, it is never dispositive.... Roberts is clearly brilliant and his demeanor suggests he well might not be an ideologue. But he did not make the case strongly enough to bet the whole house." This is what a bad argument looks like — pressing an ideological assault against someone by claiming that person could be an "ideologue." The refusal of Schumer and four other...

<p>That was the vote count when the Senate Judiciary Committee confirmed Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer in the 1990s, and it should have been the vote for John Roberts yesterday, instead of 13-5. The two Bill Clinton appointees are every bit as liberal as Judge Roberts is conservative, and they were just as unforthcoming during their confirmation hearings on how they would vote on specific cases.</p>

I am watching a Cspan 3 of the vote. Hard to read the screen but it looks like a 12 to 5 vote for Roberts to be Chief Justice.

Conservative strategists are drafting a letter to Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee demanding the release of hundreds of internal memos detailing contacts between the lawmakers and liberal interest groups opposing John Roberts’ nomination to the Supreme Court. By planning to press Democrats on the sensitive subject, conservatives seem to be pulling a page from the Democrats’ own political playbook. In the weeks leading up to the confirmation hearings, Senate Democrats have repeatedly called on the White House to give them memos Roberts penned while he was deputy solicitor general in President George H.W. Bush’s administration. Sen. Patrick Leahy...

Roberts: Day Four Set to Begin On Thursday, the members of the Senate Judiciary Cmte. continue with a third round of questioning. Then six different panels of out- side witnesses deliver their views on the professional and personal suitability of John Roberts to be appointed Chief Justice of the United States. This testimony will take the entire day. LIVE LINKSC-span3 (realplayer)C-span3 (win)Judiciary Committee web feed Nomination of John G. Roberts [LIVE thread 9-12] Nomination of John G. Roberts [LIVE Thread 9-13]~Day TwoNomination of John G. Roberts [LIVE Thread 9-14]~Day Three

Day Two of Roberts Q&A On Wednesday, the members of the Senate Judiciary Cmte. finish their first round of questions, beginning with Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS). A second round for Chief Justice nominee John Roberts will follow, with each senator getting twenty minutes as opposed to the thirty minutes in the first round. LIVE LINKSC-span3 (realplayer)C-span3 (win)Judiciary Committee web feed

CNN's Jeff Greenfield: "I Can Understand Why John Roberts Earned A Fine Living Arguing In Front Of The Supreme Court. He Is A Very Skilled Litigator And Presenter." (CNN's "Situation Room," 9/13/05 )The New York Times David Brooks: "I Think, First Of All, It Was A Good Morning Because There Is Nothing That Changed The Likely Prospects That He Will Be Confirmed." (PBS' "John Roberts Confirmation Hearings," 9/13/05 )Fox News' Megyn Kendall: "He Did Well This Morning ..." (Fox News' "Fox News Live," 9/13/05 ) Kendall On Sen. Joe Biden's (D-DE) Questioning: "KENDALL: He's ... Being Cross-Examined On Positions That...

Q&A with Roberts to Start On Tuesday, the eighteen members of the Senate Judiciary Cmte. begin questioning Chief Justice nominee John Roberts. This will take all day, with the senators asking their questions, up to a half-hour for each member, in order of seniority, alternating by party. The Schedule (media advisory) Tentative Schedule for the Hearing: Schedule is subject to change Tuesday, Sept. 13 9:30 am Chairman Specter begins 30 minute round of questioning (Round 1) 1:00 pm Break for lunch 2:00 pm Resume questioning 6:00 pm Break for dinner 7:00 pm Resume questioning 8:30 pm Round 1 questioning ends...

Roberts Hearings Set to Start On Monday, the multi-day Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Judge John Roberts begin. They are expected to last all week. First, will be a series of opening statements by the eighteen members of the Senate Judiciary Cmte. These should take up most of the afternoon. Witness List Hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on The Nomination of John G. Roberts to be Chief Justice of the United States Monday, September 12, 2005 Russell Senate Office BuildingRoom 325 12:00 p.m. PANEL I The Honorable Richard G. Lugar United States Senator [R-IN] The Honorable John Warner United...

Live on C-SPAN now.

Jerrold Nadler's Two Faces on Terror By Jacob LaksinFrontPageMagazine.com | June 13, 2005Last Friday’s House Judiciary Committee hearing on the Patriot Act had already been adjourned, but Jerrold Nadler, the Democratic blimpish congressman from New York and one of the leftmost members of the House Judiciary Committee, was too wound up to care: “We are not besmirching the honor of the United States, we are trying to uphold it,” bellowed the hefty Nadler. By this, Nadler meant to defend his attacks on the alleged abuses of the (in fact) privileged  prisoners in Guantanamo Bay. Thanks to the efforts of the...

WASHINGTON — The Republican House Judiciary Committee chairman walked off with the gavel Friday, leaving Democrats shouting into turned-off microphones at a raucous hearing on the Patriot Act. The hearing, with the two sides accusing each other of being irresponsible and undemocratic, came as President Bush was urging Congress to renew the sections of the post-Sept. 11 counter-terrorism law set to expire in September. Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.), chairman of the panel, abruptly gaveled the meeting to an end and walked out, followed by other Republicans. Sensenbrenner said that much of the testimony, which veered into debate over...

WASHINGTON — The weather outdoors is delightful in Washington, D.C., but little sign of a spring thaw can be seen inside the Capitol when it comes to confirmation of President Bush's judicial nominees. Senate Republican leader Bill Frist is trying to avoid the so-called "nuclear option," (search) saying he wanted to "stay above the partisanship and politics" in searching frantically for one last alternative to resolve the logjam over Bush judicial nominees — an effort that won't involve changing Senate rules to abolish Democratic filibusters (search). "I think what Senator Frist has said, look, he wants to look himself in...

The simmering controversy over Democratic filibusters of President George W. Bush's nominees to the federal appellate courts continues to push the constitutional envelope. Even among conservatives themselves, there is profound disagreement about whether the filibusters violate separation-of-powers principles. Leaving that weighty issue aside (for today, anyway), now a new question arises: What is meant by the advice part of "advice and consent"? The impetus for asking is clear enough. The Senate appears to be careening toward High Noon at the OK Corral — a decisive, bloody battle over the filibusters. Parliamentary maneuvering by Democrats has blocked full-Senate consideration of about...

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) said he will do everything he can to help ailing Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) overcome Democratic filibusters of President Bush’s judicial nominees, including use of the so-called nuclear option to allow an up-or-down vote on the Senate floor. Hatch’s reemergence as the top Republican on the committee — at least temporarily — places him back on the hot seat at a crucial time. Conservative groups, which strongly criticized Hatch at times when he headed the committee, are pushing Senate Republicans to press the nuclear button. Still, Hatch said he will be a placeholder for...

WASHINGTON (Talon News) -- As a vote draws near for the confirmation of White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales to succeed Attorney General John Ashcroft, Democrats in the Senate floated the idea of mounting a filibuster to the nomination. Talk of a possible filibuster drew quick rebuke from Gonzales supporters. RNC Deputy Communications Director Danny Diaz commented on a potential Democrat filibuster of Judge Alberto Gonzales' nomination. Gonzales would succeed Attorney General John Ashcroft. "Democrats should understand that filibustering America's first Hispanic nominee for attorney general is neither good policy nor good politics." Diaz said. "Numerous Senators on both sides of...