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Senate GOP Must Oppose Andrew Hurwitz for 9th Circuit

While most of us have been caught up in the sensation of electoral politics and the death of the union machine in Wisconsin, liberal activists have been working indefatigably to pack the courts – the unelected branch of government – with radicals who disrespect the Constitution.  We might have turned over a number of congressional seats and state houses in 2010, but Obama has successfully turned over many conservative seats in our federal court system.  Since taking office, Obama has appointed 150 people to federal judgeships, including 29 to appellate courts, and 2 to the Supreme Court.  He has had an indelible effect on the orientation of the 4th Circuit in particular.

While Republicans have successfully blocked some of Obama’s most extreme nominees, they have voted to confirm the vast majority of them.  Many Republicans have insisted for years that anyone who is “qualified” to serve as a judge deserves to be confirmed, irrespective of their judicial philosophy or ideology.  This school of thought suggests that as long as the nominee has the requisite resume and is clean of ethical violations, he/she should sail through the nomination process.  That is the grim consequence of elections, they contend.

This rationale is seriously flawed.  Any judge who conjures up new rights that are not in the Constitution or denies those that are explicitly enumerated is automatically unqualified to serve on any court.  On Monday, one such individual will receive a floor vote in the Senate.

Earlier this year, Obama nominated pro-abortion radical Andrew Hurwitz to serve on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.  Hurwitz had previously been appointed to the Arizona state Supreme Court by ubber-leftist Janet Napolitano.  On the Arizona Supreme Court, Hurwitz has exhibited a disregard for following the Constitution.  Congressman Ted Poe has written a letter to Senate Republicans urging them to oppose the nomination.  Here is an excerpt from the letter:

As a young law clerk, Mr. Hurwitz played a key role authoring Able and Able II; two 1972 decisions which are clearly reflected and expanded upon in the Supreme Court’s ruling on Roe v. Wade.  Roe stands almost undisputed as an unprecedented judicial usurpation of legislative authority in its fabrication of a “right” to abortion—a “right” that had never before existed in the Constitution.

This trend continued in his arguments to the Supreme Court in Ring v. Arizona.  Acting as a pro-bono attorney, Mr. Hurwitz suggested that the Supreme Court change the wording of the Constitution in order to arrive at a ruling based on his beliefs, not on the rule of law. 

This in itself should disqualify him from serving on a higher court, irrespective of how much “experience” he has promulgating his legislative initiatives from the bench.  Yet, his nomination was passed out of committee last month with bipartisan support from Lindsey Graham, Tom Coburn, and Jon Kyl.  Some might dismiss the importance of this judicial battle.  Heck, it’s the 9th circus; he’ll easily fit in with the rest of the panel.  That might be true, but as long as we have 47 seats in the Senate, there’s no reason we should help confirm any radical for any court.  Moreover, there is always the hope that some day we will be able to break up the ninth circuit into two branches.  We don’t need another Saul Alinsky disciple on the court.

Call your Republican senators and ask them to filibuster the nomination of Andrew Hurwitz.

COMMENTS

  • withaplum

    Do you have any specifics on what Hurwitz advocated in Ring? I only asked because it looks like Scalia and Thomas voted with him on that case. Also the only Able I and Able II that came up with mid nineties cases affirming Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. Were there another set of Able cases?

    • http://madisonproject.com/ Daniel Horowitz

      I’m not sure what you mean about the ’90s. Hurwitz clerked for Connecticut District Court Judge Jon Newman who authored those opinions in 1972. In a law review piece, he brags about helping craft the opinion.

      • anjinconsulting

        That should make for interesting reading. Having said that, conservatives should very careful not to let the subject of abortion (as despicable and morally reprehensible as it is) be the focus; rather make the focus the willingness to change the law to fit the meme.

        • major

          I agree…

      • withaplum

        which, as I say, was a 90s decision, hence my confusion. Possibly the mistake is original to Rep. Poe’s letter.

        Do we have any info on Hurwitz’s term on the AZ Supreme Court?

  • jimmyg

    Ring was a 7-2 decision. Justice Scalia wrote a concurring opinion joined by Justice Thomas. This was a criminal procedure case having to do with Ring’s right to a trial by Jury as guaranteed by the 6th amendment. I am having a problem finding what Cong. Poe finds specifically objectionable in this opinion, and what part of the constitution Hurwitz wanted changed to fit his beliefs.

    http://www.oyez.org/cases/2000-2009/2001/2001_01_488

    • withaplum

      downloads.frc.org/EF/EF12F17.pdf

      (It’s a PDF download) The full text of the letter doesn’t really add any information, as Mr. Horowitz has quoted the relevant sections (although he really should use ellipses /pedant).

      Here’s a link to the 2002 Law review article that Hurwitz authored on the Abele cases and their influence of Roe (also a PDF).

      a.nyls.edu/user_files/1/3/4/17/49/v46n1-2p231-248.pdf

      This has been cited on other sites and appears to be the source of the statement that Hurwitz in fact authored Abele. The article isn’t really a defense of Abele or Roe, in the sense that its more of a historical narrative than critical study of the reasoning. That may in itself be significant. It does make a case that Abele was directly responsible for the reasoning in Roe. The claim that Hurwitz authored Abele and therefore had a direct impact on the Roe decision comes from a footnote:

      “The author received some small inkling of the influence of Abele II on the Court?s thinking in the fall of 1972, when interviewing for clerkships at the Supreme Court. Justice Powell devoted over an hour of conversation to a discussion of Judge Newman?s analysis, while Justice Stewart (my future boss) jokingly referred to me as ?the clerk who wrote the Newman opinion.? I assume that the latter was based on Judge Newman?s generous letter of recommendation, a medium in which some exaggeration is expected.”

      I’m hardly an expert on these subjects (I had never heard of Abele before an hour ago, as shown by my first post), but I think the most valuable thing would be some information on Hurwitz’ record as an Arizona Supreme Court Justice. After all, he’s been in that position for almost ten years I believe. Surely his radicalism has come through in some of his opinions.

      • jimmyg

        I Googled this and could only find a regurgitation of the above post. I have no idea where Cong. Poe came up with the idea that in “Ring v. Arizona”Judge Hurwitz asked the Court to change the wording of the Constitution in order to arrive at a ruling based on his (Hurwitz) beliefs and not on the rule of law.

        The Sup. Ct. in Ring stated that the issue before the Court was as follows:
        “The question presented is whether that aggravating factor may be found by the judge, as Arizona law specifies, or whether the Sixth Amendment?s jury trial guarantee, made applicable to the States by the Fourteenth Amendment, requires that the aggravating factor determination be entrusted to the jury.”

        http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/01-488.ZO.html