By Rick Manning
The U.S. Senate is expected to vote today on the nominations of two particularly troublesome Obama judiciary nominees, Robert Chatigny and Goodwin Liu. The lame duck Senate consideration of the nominations is seen as their last chance for confirmation given the changed, more conservative make up of the 112th Senate chamber.
Chatigny is being considered for the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals post vacated when Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor was confirmed to serve on the highest court in the land. A long time friend of discredited retiring Connecticut Senator Christopher Dodd, Chatigny finds himself under fire for rulings dealing with child molesters and his intervention in the highly controversial Roadside Strangler case.
Americans for Limited Government (ALG) is one group that has urged the Senate to reject Chatigny citing his support for a confessed and convicted mass murderer, rapist while serving as a federal judge. Chatigny’s record is so disturbing that California Senator Dianne Feinstein refused to vote for his confirmation in the Senate Judiciary Committee during a normal party line confirmation vote.
The controversial nominee found his judgeship under attack across the nation as ALG ran ads in multiple states urging Senators to reject Chatigny (see ad here), as well as leading a national e-mail mobilization campaign.
Now is his moment of truth, where the 59 Democrats and 41 Republicans who comprise the dying days of this Senate session will decide if he should be promoted to the second highest level of courts in the land.
Goodwin Liu presents a different case for Senate confirmation with his outside-the-mainstream views that health and welfare issues are constitutional rights, pitting those who believe in limited government power, and those who would dictate unfettered power to the federal government.
Liu’s extremism is particularly disturbing as the court system is likely to be confronted by a variety of cases related to health care. Liu’s stated view that health care is a right, would put him firmly in the position of supporting an even broader expansion of the ObamaCare legislation to eliminate the private provision of health care services.
Liu has even argued that the Constitution’s Commerce Clause can and should be applied to areas that have nothing to do with commerce, essentially eliminating all limitations on the activities that the federal government can regulate, outlaw and dictate.
Bill Wilson, President of Americans for Limited Government, calls the Chatigny and Liu nominations, “two of the worse that I have seen.”
The Senate vote is expected to be close with it likely that both Chatigny and Liu will need to get at least one Republican vote in order to gain confirmation.
Rick Manning is the Director of Communications for Americans for Limited Government.
