President Obama’s nominee for the Executive Branch appointment to the Office of Legal Counsel is Dawn Johnsen. Despite the “Get Bush” support of California Senator, Diane Feinstein, Johnsen’s appointment should be summarily rejected.
Thirty-one Republican state senators have already asked U.S. Sens. Evan Bayh and Dick Lugar to oppose the nomination of the Indiana University law professor. Johnsen’s appointment to OLC would make it very hard to stop a subsequent appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court.
While I don’t object to anyone who holds that the Executive Branch must uphold the laws and Constitution, no matter how “get bush” foaming at the mouth, the partisanship of this woman is beyond the pale. Here’s just a taste of the so-out-of-the-mainstream, far-left, burn the house down, partisan radical views Johnsen espouses:
- Johnsen is on record calling for the Senate to reject judicial nominees who believe in originalism, belong to the Federalist Society, or think that Roe v. Wade permits any restrictions on abortion.
- Johnsen argued in a Supreme Court brief that restrictions on abortion violate the Thirteenth Amendment’s prohibition against slavery because “the state has conscripted [the pregnant woman’s] body for its own ends.”
- Contrary to settled law, Johnsen believes that “economic justice” requires the government to provide funding for the exercise of constitutional rights, especially abortion rights. She has called the Hyde Amendment’s prohibition on federal funding of abortions a “callous” and “discriminatory” policy.
- Johnsen characterized the Bush Administration’s legal rationale for warrantless monitoring of suspected al-Qaeda communications, upheld by the courts, as “extreme and implausible.”
- She said of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, “In any abortion or sexual harassment case, Judge Thomas’s ability to be unbiased or neutral is highly suspect.”
According to the Committee for Justice blog, “GOP senators are not the only ones that should be hesitant to confirm Dawn Johnsen. If Democratic senators are sincere in their loudly voiced protests about politicization of the Justice Department, Johnsen’s nomination should cause them great concern.”
This is not the change America voted for.