| Wednesdays with Audrey Hudson | 12.07.11 |  |
Republican Senators have effectively blocked President Barack Obama’s controversial nominee to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit citing her work against gun rights and pro-abortion stances.
The nomination of Caitlin J. Halligan, a former New York state solicitor general, failed in a cloture vote of 54-45 – six votes short of the 60 required to break the filibuster. Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska was the only Republican to vote with Democrats.
Republicans said they were wary of Halligan’s record as a legal activist and believed she would continue that activism on the bench.
“In Ms. Halligan’s view, the courts aren’t so much a forum for the even-handed application of the law as a place where a judge can work out his or her own idea of what society should look like,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R.–Ky.).
“As she once put it, the courts are a means to achieve social progress with judges presumably writing the script,” McConnell said.
“I have nothing against this nominee personally,” McConnell said. “We shouldn’t be putting activists on the bench.”
Halligan’s nomination has been languishing in the Senate since Obama first nominated her in September 2010. Republicans signaled in March she faced tough opposition when the Senate Judiciary Committee deadlocked in a 10 to 8 party-line vote to advance her confirmation for a floor vote.
The D.C. Circuit has jurisdiction over constitutional challenges and contentious decisions by federal government agencies and is a stepping-stone to the Supreme Court, so it receives special scrutiny by the Senate. The open seat has not been filled since Chief Justice John Roberts was confirmed to the Supreme Court in 2005.
Proponents of Second Amendment rights criticized Halligan’s attempts in 2003 to hold firearms manufacturers and retailers responsible for crimes committed with guns. In 2006, Halligan also filed a brief arguing that handgun manufacturers were guilty of creating a public nuisance.
“Such an activist approach is both bewildering and flatly inconsistent with the original understanding of the Second Amendment rights that Americans enjoy,” said Sen. Mike Lee (R.–Utah).
“It is most certainly not the time for us to consider confirming a controversial nominee with a record of extreme views of the law and Constitution,” Lee said.
To read more about this story, check it out at HumanEvents.com.
—Audrey Hudson |
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