Another Vote Coming on Obama Anti-gunner to the Federal Bench
A crucial vote on the nomination of another virulently anti-gun Obama nominee is scheduled to come before the Senate on Thursday.
A crucial vote on the nomination of another virulently anti-gun Obama nominee is scheduled to come before the Senate on Thursday.
Goodwin Liu was picked by Obama for a seat on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals over a year ago, but controversy over his lack of judicial experience and his strong support of judicial activism have kept his nomination bottled up.
According to Ed Whelan, a one-time clerk to Justice Antonin Scalia and now president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, “Liu believes that judges have the authority to impose their views… using clever verbal camouflage to disguise what they’re doing.”
Liu is so far to the left that even Obama’s former Chief of Staff, Rahm Emmanuel, was hesitant to push him forward.
Liu is the Associate Dean and Professor of Law at the ultra-left UC Berkeley School of Law. Only 39 years old, he comes nowhere near fulfilling the American Bar Association’s (ABA) standards for a judge.
But what he lacks in experience, he makes up for in radical liberalism. In a recent book that he co-authored, Liu says that, “Applications of constitutional text and principles must be open to adaptation and change… as the conditions and norms of our society become ever more distant from those of the Founding generation.”
So Liu, like many radical progressives, believes that our rights are constantly evolving. The Second Amendment might have been necessary in the 1700s, he believes, but now those rights are no longer necessary.
In a law journal, Liu said that Supreme Court rulings that found the Brady Law’s unfunded mandate and the Gun-Free School Zones Act unconstitutional did “damage” to civil rights and “upset settled understandings of congressional power.” Actually, those decisions attempted to protect civil rights of gun owners and restore constitutional “understandings of congressional power.”
Liu also co-authored the 2002 law journal article with then-Senator Hillary Clinton… which should tell us all we need to know about Liu’s liberal, anti-gun views!
The bottom line is that Liu would, like the president who appointed him, work to fundamentally alter the relationship between the government and the people.
“It becomes pretty clear why ‘originalism’ and ‘strict construction’ don’t make a lot of sense,” Liu said in an interview promoting his book. “The Framers deliberately chose… broad words so they would be adaptable to new challenges over time.”
But Liu’s extremism is just fine with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who this week set the wheels in motion to overcome Republican opposition to the nomination. A so-called “cloture” vote will likely be held on Thursday—meaning that Reid will need to muster 60 votes out of the 100-member chamber to bowl over the opposition.
With Democrats controlling 54 seats, Reid will need to get a least of handful of week-kneed Republicans to link up and push this nominee through. Earlier this month, Reid did just that with another judicial nominee, who passed with the help of the following eleven Republicans: Alexander (TN), Brown (MA), Chambliss (GA), Collins (ME), Graham (SC), Isakson (GA), Kirk (IL), McCain (AZ), Murkowski (AK), Snowe (ME), and Thune (SD).
It’s important that Second Amendment supporters keep the pressure on all Senators, especially those who claim to be pro-gun.
ACTION: Please urge your two Senators to oppose Obama’s appointment of Goodwin Liu to the federal courts. You can use the Gun Owners Legislative Action Center to send your legislators a pre-written e-mail message.
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