Senator Jeff Sessions is calling on his colleagues to filibuster Judge David Hamilton. Go here and call your Senator. Tell your Senator to oppose cloture on David Hamilton and filibuster his nomination to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Judge Hamilton, a district court judge, is Barack Obama’s nominee to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals.  That very court has cited Judge Hamilton for abusing his power as a judge.

In 1994, the 7th Circuit rebuked Judge Hamilton for denying a Rabbi the right to display a Menorah as part of an Indianapolis holiday display.

In 2005, Judge Hamilton prohibited the Indiana House of Representatives from praying if Jesus’s name was mentioned, but said praying in Allah’s name was perfectly fine.

He also is one of the most lenient judges in America when it comes to crime and criminals.

In United States v. Rinehart, 2007 U.S. LEXIS 19498 (S.D. Ind. Feb 2, 2007), Judge Hamilton used his opinion to request clemency for a police officer who pled guilty to two counts of child pornography. The 32 year old officer had engaged in “consensual” sex with two teenagers and videotaped his activities.

In United States v. Woolsey, 535 F.3d 540 (7th Cir. 2008), the Seventh Circuit faulted Judge Hamilton for disregarding an earlier conviction in order to avoid imposing a life sentence on a repeat offender.

Call your Senator. Tell your Senator to oppose cloture on Judge Hamilton and support a filibuster.

Senator Jeff Sessions, ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, is encouraging Republican colleagues to filibuster Barack Obama’s nominee to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, David Hamilton.

Hamilton has major issues against him, including stating publicly his believe that the founders intended the judiciary to routinely amend the constitution through case law. More troubling, David Hamilton has ruled that praying to Allah does not violate the Establishment of Religion clause in the First Amendment, but praying in Jesus Christ’s name does.

According to Sesions’s letter,

Judge Hamilton’s most determidly activists decisions might be his series of rulings in A Woman’s Choice v. Newman, 904 F. Supp. 1434 (S.D. Ind. 1995). Through his rulings in this case, Judge Hamilton succeeded in blocking the enforcement of an Indiana informed consent law for 7 years. In reversing, the Seventh Circuit noted that Judge Hamilton had abused his judicial discretion.

Sessions concludes, “[t]his is not the type of service that should be rewarded with a promotion. In deed, this is one of those extraordinary circumstances where the President should be informed that his nominee is not qualified.”

You can read the full letter here (PDF).

Likewise, you can call your Senator at 202-224-3121 and ask him to oppose Judge David Hamilton’s nomination to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.

Senate Republicans to ramp up opposition, in a respectful and fair manner, against Judge Sonia Sotomayor.

Alabama Republican Senator Jeff Sessions, the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, will  lead this week’s charge against President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee

In a series of speeches Republican Senators will focus on “Sotomayor’s involvement with the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, the New Haven firefighters case, as well as role ‘empathy’ and the influence of international law has had on her decisions.”

Respectful and fair opposition doesn’t have to mean nothing substantive.

Michael O’Brien over at The Hill reports that Senator Jeff Sessions (R, Ala.) told Fox News recently that he had no litmus test on abortion for judicial candidates and that a judge that had pro-abortion views could get his vote for confirmation.

This might alarm anyone that is vehemently anti-abortion. It should also alarm all those conservatives that pushed for Senator Sessions to be made the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

…but hold your outrage for just a minute. Let’s more closely look at what he said.

Read More →

Your phone calls and support paid off. Jeff Sessions will lead the Judiciary Committee’s Republicans.

Thanks for all the calls. Glad the Senate GOP understands the situation and listened to all of you.

Consider this an open thread.