Officials in North Carolina on Monday filed a lawsuit against the federal government in an effort to keep the state's controversial bathroom law in place, according to multiple reports.
The lawsuit comes after the Department of Justice (DOJ) told Gov. Pat McCrory (R) that the state's law — which requires transgender people to use the bathroom corresponding to their biological sex — violates the Civil Rights Act.
The DOJ ordered McCrory to respond by Monday to confirm "that the State will not comply with or implement HB2."
North Carolina's lawsuit against the federal government said the DOJ's position is "baseless and blatant overreach," NBC News reported.
"If the United States desires a new protected class under Title VII, it must seek such action by the United States Congress," the suit said.
McCrory said Sunday that the state was given an "unrealistic" deadline for response, adding that the federal government is "being a bully."
"They gave the ninth-largest state in the United States ... three working days to respond to a pretty complex letter and to a pretty big threat," McCrory said on "Fox News Sunday."
"We don't think three working days is enough to respond to such a threat."
The North Carolina law, condemned by LGBT rights supporters, also has provisions restricting local governments from enacting their own anti-discrimination legislation for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.
The DOJ announced that Attorney General Loretta Lynch will announce a "law enforcement action" connected to the state later Monday afternoon.
IT'S TIME TO PRAY AND VOTE BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE. Sources: WND, NBC, Lost History.com, Youtube
Despite what propaganda Mainstream Media networks report to American citizens, the LGBT movement culture war is not about DISCRIMINATION.
Nor is the LGBT movement culture war about Transgender Bathroom Sharing Ordinances.
To the contrary!
Instead the LGBT movement culture war is really about destroying Christianity and dividing the United States, just as the Roman Army was eventually defeated via transforming the Roman soldiers into Homosexuals.
I am well aware that the main focus and discussion of this post is a controversial topic but......
Will the citizens of 21st century America wake up to what is actually going on in this country before it's too late?
Or is the USA headed for eternal Moral and Political DESTRUCTION?
Rome didn't fall in a day.
I say it's time to Pray and Vote before it's too late.
Michael Brown urges readers to take action in support of religious freedom.
The mayor of San Francisco has banned all publicly funded city employees from traveling to North Carolina.
The NFL threatened to block Atlanta, Georgia, from hosting a future Super Bowl.
The NBA is threatening to relocate next year’s All Star game from Charlotte, North Carolina, to another city.
Corporate giants like American Airlines and Hollywood giants like Disney are threatening action against Georgia and North Carolina.
Why?
It is because North Carolina has passed a bill requiring people to use the public bathroom or locker room that corresponds to their birth certificate gender and because Georgia has enacted legislation (subsequently vetoed by the governor) that would protect pastors from having to perform same-sex “marriages.”
It is time for Christians and all people of conscience to say, “Enough is enough with your bullying. We are not going to bow down to your threats. We will do what is right, regardless of cost or consequence, and in the end, we will be vindicated for taking a stand.”
As for Ed Lee, the mayor of San Francisco, he’s acting more like a dictator than a mayor. Who gave him the right to tell city-funded employees where they could travel in their own country, once known as “the land of the free”?
Unfortunately, the pattern is all too familiar.
A state like Indiana passes a Religious Freedom Restoration Act that mirrors national law, as a result of which gay bullies and their allies threaten to pull their businesses from the state – from Wal-Mart to Apple to Craig’s List to the NCAA – and within days, the governor and the legislation cave, passing a new law that makes things worse than ever. (This happened in March 2015; the Indianan legislators and governor have since pushed back to some degree.)
We cannot let this happen in our states (I have lived in North Carolina since 2003), and as believers nationwide, we must stand together and reject these pressure tactics and call them out for what they are: unethical, strong-armed bullying.
Earlier this year, I helped draft an eight-page letter to the mayor and City Council of Charlotte, detailing the negative effects their new “anti-LGBT discrimination” bill could have. (Ironically, a gay man who was instrumental in helping to push this bill through was a convicted, child sex-offender who has since resigned as president of Charlotte’s LGBT Chamber of Commerce because of his past record.)
Among the negative effects of this bill outlined in my letter were:
The door would be opened wide to heterosexual predators who would use transgender bathroom rights to spy on girls and women (for chilling video evidence of what these heterosexual predators have done, see here).
The proposed changes could lead to widespread discrimination against Christians and other people of faith who, in good conscience, could not participate in same-sex “weddings” (such as photographers, bakers, florists, and others). The law would now be decidedly against them.
I also noted that, “National studies indicate that states which do not have non-discrimination laws including ‘sexual orientation’ and ‘gender identity’ are suffering no ill effects economically,” dispelling the myth that only “progressive” (= “pro-LGBT”) cities are prospering. The evidence is clearly against this.
This is yet another reason to stand up to the bullies: Good business practices and hard work lead to prosperity, not being politically correct. (For the truth about the North Carolina bill, which the secular media is largely failing to report, see here, and note that in North Carolina, some of the companies protesting the loudest already have policies to protect LGBT “rights,” and those policies are completely unaffected by the new law.)
In Georgia, the main focus was preserving religious freedoms, such as protecting pastors from having to perform same-sex “wedding” ceremonies. (Religious freedoms were certainly an issue in North Carolina, but the central focus here was on the bathroom bill.)
Yet as Ryan Anderson pointed out, the bill passed by the Georgia Legislature was quite narrow in its protections, contained language that could be used against people of faith and was a significantly gutted version of a far from perfect original bill.
In other words, the bill Gov. Nathan Deal vetoed Monday is quite tame, simply providing the barest of protections of our religious liberties, yet it still created an uproar of protest, as “More than 30 of Hollywood’s heaviest hitters sent a threatening letter to Gov. Nathan Deal, telling him in no uncertain terms that if he passes the religious-freedom bill the legislature handed him for consideration, they’ll never work in Georgia again.”
As I have warned for years (and repeated almost ad infinitum), the activists who came out of the closet want to put you and me in the closet, and they will not rest until that door is safely shut. It is time for us to say: That will never happen, and we will go to jail rather than compromise our convictions. Your bullying will backfire in the end.
When it comes to transgender issues, we are dealing with an unquantifiable, untestable condition that relies entirely on self-perception (and can switch by the day or the hour), as noted by Margaret A. Hagen, professor of psychological and brain sciences at Boston University. Yet the mayor of Seattle recently used an executive order to allow biological males to use women’s bathrooms.
In the days to come, I plan to lay out some specific calls to action, including a strategy for Christian athletes in the NFL and NBA. But for now, it’s time for us to get on our knees before God so we can stand tall before man, resolving in our hearts that, whatever it takes (in godly, not fleshly terms), we will do what is right. (For an excellent, strategic handbook, see here.)
For the moment, I encourage you to take a moment to send a note of appreciation to Gov. Pat McCrory in North Carolina for not caving in (he will be under heavy pressure in the days ahead). Will you stop and do that right now?
Billy Graham once said, “Courage is contagious. When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are often stiffened.”
Let courage spread from you to others – in your home, your school, your place of business, your congregation – beginning today.
A new Iowa Poll shows national Republican presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney and tea party favorite Michele Bachmann leading among the state's likely GOP caucus-goers.
The poll conducted for The Des Moines Register shows Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, with support from 23 percent in Iowa.
Bachmann is right on his heels. The Minnesota representative who plans to launch her campaign in Iowa on Monday has support from 22 percent.
Romney was the No. 2 finisher in the caucuses in his bid for the 2008 GOP nomination. Bachmann is a three-term congresswoman and newer face in the 2012 White House mix.
The results are based on telephone interviews with 400 likely Republican Iowa caucus-goers from June 19 to 22. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percentage points.
Romney has said he plans to run a scaled-down Iowa campaign, compared to the all-out, $10-million effort he waged for the 2008 caucuses.
Tim Pawlenty has been the most aggressive about campaigning in Iowa, having lined up top Iowa and national consultants, been a frequent visitor to the state and ran the 2012 campaign's first Republican candidate television advertisements last week.
However, only 6 percent of Iowa Republicans expected to attend the 2012 caucuses prefer the former Minnesota governor as their choice, according to the poll.
Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich, whose campaign has struggled since widespread staff departures this month, has support from 7 percent, the same as Texas Representative Ron Paul.
Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum has 4 percent, followed by former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, who has said he will not campaign in Iowa, with 2 percent.
I'll Admit I Was Probably Wrong About Pres. Obama & Hillary Clinton's No-Fly Zone Strategy. Such Military Action Appears To Be Working. On Wednesday Gadhafi's Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa Resigned.
No Doubt This Was Definitely A Significant Blow To Gadhadi's Regime.
If The Obama Administration Is Able To Force Col. Gadhafi & His Sons From Their Seats Of Power, It Will Certainly Prove To Be A Tremendous Leadership & Political Victory For Barack Obama
However Without More Help From U.S. Troops, Removing Gadhafi Will Only Be A Distant Fantasy!
Notions of a cease-fire in Libya quickly faded Saturday as a battle raged for control of the oil town of al-Brega, where rebel fighters claimed they had lost fighters and vehicles to NATO airstrikes.
Airstrikes hit several rebel vehicles and killed at least 13 rebel fighters, spokesmen for the Libyan opposition said Saturday. Seven others were wounded.
NATO was investigating the incident, a spokeswoman said Saturday.
"NATO takes any reports of civilian casualties very seriously, but exact details are hard to verify as we have no reliable sources on the ground," NATO's Oana Lungescu said. "Clearly, if someone fires at one of our aircraft, of course they have the right to defend themselves."
Rebel spokesman Abdul Hafiz Ghoga said opposition fighters had retaken al-Brega after a night of heavy fighting with Moammar Gadhafi's forces.
But it was not immediately clear who commanded control Saturday of the coastal city that has now changed hands six times in as many weeks under the dramatically shifting circumstances of the Libyan war.
In a fresh offensive Friday, Libyan opposition forces led by army units that defected from Gadhafi's forces were able to push back Gadhafi's troops, rebel spokesman Shamsiddin Abdulmolah said.
Rebels were fighting with newly refurbished rocket launchers and artillery delivered to the frontlines Thursday night by the army units that switched sides, Abdulmolah said.
Meanwhile, forces loyal to Gadhafi showed no signs of backing down after officials spurned an opposition cease-fire proposal.
Government spokesman Musa Ibrahim told reporters in Tripoli on Friday that rebels were not "really serious" about the offer, which he said included "silly conditions."
"They are asking us to withdraw from our own cities and open our cities to people, who are holding up arms, who are tribal, violent, no unified leadership, al Qaeda links, and no one knows who they are. If this is not mad, then I don't know what it is," he said. "We will not leave our cities. We will not stop protecting our civilians."
His comments came after Libyan opposition leader Mustafa Abdul Jalil laid out cease-fire conditions that included freedom of expression for the Libyan people and the removal of snipers, mercenaries and militias from western cities.
Ultimately, he said, the opposition's goal remains regime change in Libya.
Ghoga sought to clarify the opposition's position Saturday.
"There is no, and was no, negotiation on a cease-fire with Colonel Gaddafi's dictatorship," he said at a Bengahzi news conference.
He repeated the opposition demands that Gadhafi halt all military action, end the sieges laid on cities like Misrata and allow free speech and assembly.
Sources close to Gadhafi told CNN that political solutions are still possible but that the Libyan leader would relinquish power only to others within his inner circle.
They said there is still time for dialogue but expressed doubts about who would represent the opposition.
Any transition, they said, would involve Gadhafi's second son, Saif al-Islam Gadhafi, and for such a transition to take place there would first have to be an end to the fighting.
The Libyan sources told CNN that for now, Gadhafi remains confident the regime can withstand any challenge from the rebels.
U.S. officials claim Gadhafi's military capabilities have been steadily eroded since the onset of U.N.-sanctioned airstrikes.
The dictator's forces, however, still outnumber rebels by about 10 to 1 in terms of armor and other ground forces, according to Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman.
CIA operatives are providing intelligence from Libya, where opposition forces are on the run and the defiant government suffered the embarrassing defection of its foreign minister Wednesday.
The NATO-led coalition, which is enforcing a no-fly zone and protecting civilians from the intense fighting, got no help from the weather in its ongoing efforts to protect the fragile opposition movement.
"The weather conditions did not allow close combat support by aircraft in the last couple of days," said Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
Moammar Gadhafi's government, for its part, kept up the war of words.
State-run Libyan TV late Wednesday quoted a military source as saying a "civilian location was shelled tonight in the city of Tripoli by the colonizing crusader aggression."
Amid debate on whether the allies will arm the retreating and undertrained rebels, a U.S. intelligence source told CNN the CIA is in the country to increase the "military and political understanding" of the situation.
"Yes, we are gathering intel firsthand and we are in contact with some opposition entities," said the source.
The White House refused to comment on a Reuters report that President Barack Obama has signed a secret order authorizing covert U.S. government support for rebel troops.
"I will reiterate what the president said yesterday -- no decision has been made about providing arms to the opposition or to any group in Libya," said White House press secretary Jay Carney in a statement. "We're not ruling it out or ruling it in. We're assessing and reviewing options for all types of assistance that we could provide to the Libyan people, and have consulted directly with the opposition and our international partners about these matters."
According to the Reuters report, Obama signed the covert aid order, or "finding," within the past few weeks. Such findings are required for the CIA to conduct secret operations, the report said.
A U.S. official not authorized to speak publicly could not confirm the finding, but noted when there are crises like this, "you look at all instruments of national power."
In early March, a U.S. official told CNN "the intelligence community is aggressively pursuing information on the ground" in Libya.
British Prime Minister David Cameron told the House of Commons that he has not ruled out arming the Libyan opposition, but added that Britain has not made the decision to do so.
It is a Sunday night in London's East End and the self-styled "most hated man in Britain" is holding court, reveling in his vision of a Taliban victory over America and a world under Islamic Shariah law.
The crowd of about 250 listens intently as Anjem Choudary issues a call to arms in the pristine surroundings of the newly refurbished art deco conference center, built to host weddings and business meetings.
"There are many battlefields," he says calmly into a microphone. "There's a battlefield outside 10 Downing Street [home to Britain's prime minister] and in the mountains of the Tora Bora [in Afghanistan]."
Any man who fails to fight, he warns, will face difficulty when the "angel of death" arrives and he is forced to explain to Allah why he did not raise his hand "against the oppressor" out of fear. "Allah will say to him, 'Am I not more worthy to be feared than them?'" Choudary says.
"Allahu Akbar!" the men shout out in unison, as if a war cry, during his speech. "Allahu Akbar." God is great.
A group of women, all heavily veiled and sitting in a screened-off area, remain quiet throughout.
As former leader of the banned Islamist organizations al-Muhajiroun and Islam4UK, Choudary was kept off the bill and appeared as the surprise star speaker at the rally.
His groups may be outlawed but, unlike his female followers, Choudary will not be silenced.
His message is one that echoes across Europe, which experts say is home to thousands of people who would wholeheartedly support Choudary's "ultimate objective" — the "domination of the world by Islam."
The majority of Muslims are not Islamists, who believe in a society based on Islamic law, and not all of the latter are seeking world domination or are willing to use violence.
But fear of another Islamist-inspired atrocity after Madrid in 2004 — 191 dead — and London in 2005 — 53 dead — remains high.
Rightly so, according to Dr. John J. Le Beau, a former CIA officer and now professor of strategy and security studies at Germany's George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies.
"It's a mathematical certainty there will be a successful attack in Europe at some point," he told msnbc.com. "The amount of attempted plots we see is not decreasing. I think what we have seen is a ... strengthening of attempted attacks that in some cases have come pretty close."
Le Beau, who cautioned that putting a figure on the number of Islamists was a "soft science," estimated there were between 5,000 and 10,000 people in Europe "willing to engage in violence."
In 2007, the German Central Institute Islam Archive said there were 53.7 million Muslims living in Europe.
A backlash is growing.
Support for the far-right in normally liberal countries like Sweden and the Netherlands is on the rise. French lawmakers voted for a ban on full face veils. Protest groups, such as the English Defense League which has been linked to soccer hooligans, have made headlines.
Le Beau warned of "an incipient clash of cultures." The consequences of another terrorist spectacular — intelligence reports recently warned an al-Qaida-linked group was planning to hit Western Europe with a commando-style raid like that on Mumbai, India — could be profound, he suggested.
"I could see that leading to a spontaneous violent reaction on the part of others. Could this spin out of control? Sure," he said. "I think that would be very dangerous because ... it runs the risk of sectarianizing or 'Balkanizing' Western Europe."
Europe is home to ancient conflicts. The Balkans, which includes the former Yugoslavia, has been the scene of intermittent religious strife stretching back to the fall of Constantinople, now Istanbul, to the Muslim Ottoman Empire in 1453.
After the fall of Yugoslavian Communism, a resurgence of ethnic tensions led to the 1992-1995 Bosnian War, during which 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were massacred by Bosnian Serb forces in a single act of genocide.
The U.K., far removed from such turmoil, has a long tradition of tolerating other countries' dissidents. In the 19th century, political philosopher Karl Marx took refuge in London after outraging authorities in his native Germany and France.
But that tradition has been frayed by the increasingly vocal presence of Islamists in the U.K.
'Crazies' flock to 'Londonistan'
In the 1990s, the city became so popular for Islamists fleeing authorities in Muslim countries that some commentators dubbed it "Londonistan."
Citing the WikiLeaks cables, the Guardian newspaper last week reported that the future U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron told an American official in April 2009 that the former Labour government had "let in a lot of crazies and did not wake up early enough" to the danger posed by Muslim extremists.
Le Beau said while Choudary and others like him were unlikely to fight themselves,
they were helping to recruit people to the cause who would.
"These groups are not the terrorist cells that are going to launch an attack," he said. "These are the groups that radicalize individuals and put them in the frame of mind where they might engage in an attack."
Richard Reid, the so-called "shoe bomber" who attempted to blow up a flight from Paris to Miami in December 2001, was radicalized after meeting extremists at mosques in London, his father Robin tearfully told BBC News.
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian dubbed the "underwear bomber" after being accused of trying to blow up a Detroit-bound flight on Christmas Day last year, studied at University College London. Yemeni officials told the BBC he became an Islamist in the U.K., although the British government has denied this.
And London's Finsbury Park Mosque, now renamed after a takeover by moderates, was once the power-base of radical cleric Abu Hamza, a former nightclub bouncer who organized a conference praising the 9/11 attackers. He was later sentenced to seven years in prison for inciting murder and racial hatred.
A Reformed Islamist
Ghaffar Hussain once counted himself among London's Islamists.
His reaction to the Sept. 11 attacks was "well, so what?"
"I felt it was kind of redressing some of the imbalance," Hussain said. "'They've done this to the Palestinians by supporting the Israelis, this is the price you pay.'"
However, he now battles the Islamist ideology as head of outreach at a British counter-extremism think tank, the Quilliam Foundation.
"London is like the heart of the Arab world," Hussain said. "The political dissidents are all based here."
In the 10 years before 9/11, foreign Arab dissidents "set up shop and carried on doing what they were doing in their own countries: Preaching violent jihad," he explained.
They found a ready-made constituency of young, disaffected, second-generation Muslims who had "experienced racism when they were younger."
"Merge those two together and you have a recipe for disaster," Hussain said. "I was caught up in that ... and became active in my own area, doing speeches, giving out leaflets for about three years.
"I abhor any kind of extremism, anything that takes innocent life. I look back with surprise at the things I used to believe."
His "wild guess" on the number of Islamists in Europe was "less than 5,000 hardcore activists" with a further 20,000 to 30,000 people who are "broadly sympathetic at times."
Al-Qaida's propaganda gives an indication of where they believe support is strongest, Hussain said, as they tend to publish only in English and German, not French, Spanish or Dutch.
Fears of a terrorist attack may have recently gripped Germany , but Hussain said authorities there had not done enough to minimize the risk. Many of the 3 million Muslims there came as "guest-workers" and he said there had been little attempt to integrate them into society.
"Germany is a bit of a basket case. Those communities are very hard to penetrate. Guessing, I'd say it’s probably not as bad as the U.K., but nobody really knows," he said.
Angry Young Men
As for Choudary, "he’s got about 50 followers, all young men — I know some of them personally — very, very ill-informed," Hussain said. "All they know is they are angry about something."
Choudary has achieved infamy in Britain, particularly after announcing an Islamist parade through the town of Wootton Bassett, where local people have taken to lining the streets to pay respects to dead soldiers as they return home through a nearby air force base.
The event, which would have seen the Islamists carrying empty coffins to symbolize Muslims "mercilessly murdered" in Afghanistan, did not take place but still sparked public anger.
Given his rhetoric, some in Britain question Choudary's right to freedom of speech.
And the European Union is taking steps to limit the flow of Islamist propaganda, putting itself at odds with the U.S. and its adherence to the First Amendment.
Gilles de Kerchove, the EU's counterterrorism coordinator, said legislation would soon be implemented which would allow "even 'free speech' member states to shut down websites, to bring people to court when they cross the line."
"That's where we have a problem with the U.S.," he told msnbc.com. "Most of the neo-Nazi and most radical Islamist websites are hosted by U.S. servers."
The EU has invested millions of dollars on research to develop programs capable of monitoring the internet for the "automatic detection of threats and abnormal behavior or violence," the Sunday Telegraph reported.
cargo and using computer programs to analyze this data could prevent terrorist attacks.
The attempt to send bombs hidden in printers from Yemen to Chicago in October was detected by Saudi Arabian intelligence. However, a surveillance program might have red-flagged the shipment as a U.S. synagogue was likely to purchase office equipment closer to home.
"It's stupid to send a printing machine from Yemen to a synagogue in Chicago," de Kerchove said. "That does not make sense."
He insisted the danger to Europe remained real, despite the lack of a major attack since London in 2005.
"That's not because there's no threat. It's because the security services have been very effective," de Kerchove said, highlighting recent arrests in connection with an alleged plot to kill the moderate head of a Paris mosque.
Like Le Beau, he thought it likely that a significant attack would eventually slip through. "Since the threat is becoming more ... diverse and complex, it's not that risky to speak like this and say, 'It's not if, but when,'" he added.
Choudary, who rose to prominence in 1999 when media reports described him as a key figure in the recruitment of fighters for Islamist forces around the world, insists that his beliefs did not mean "I'm going to kill you."
'There will always be Wars'
The mild-mannered Choudary told msnbc.com that some "battlefields" were merely "ideological" ones.
The former lawyer said he "cannot have a friendship" with a non-Muslim but different religions could live side-by-side "peacefully."
"As long as my life and wealth is protected in Britain, I do not target the life and wealth (of people here)," Choudary said, citing a passage from the Quran to that effect.
However, he cautioned this stance was a matter for legitimate religious debate. "There are many Muslims who do not believe that," he said. "(London suicide bomber) Mohammed Siddique Khan didn’t believe that."
And he appeared almost to relish the prospect of ethnic violence.
"There will always be wars. The conflict will continue always. I think it's a matter of time before another 9/11 takes place and another 7/7 (London bombings)," Choudary said.
"I think we are on the brink of many more operations in the West. This is going to be very, very nasty ... The Muslims engaged in jihad are not going to stop. People will declare jihad in Britain and America. I don't think you can stomach something like that."
Senate Republicans are finalizing their line of attack against Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, casting the nominee as a biased, closed-minded judge who’s on the wrong side of Gun Rights and Affirmative Action cases.
In other words, they want to fire up the culture war issues heading into next week’s confirmation hearings — and perhaps awaken an apathetic conservative base that has been sluggish in its reaction to the Supreme Court nominee.
But GOP insiders are wary of going too far with attacks on the first Hispanic nominee to the Supreme Court, so they plan to needle her on very specific cases, rulings and writings. Expect to hear plenty about the liberal Puerto Rican Legal Defense Fund, the Ricci discrimination case and her views on guns.
It’s a strategy born in large part out of necessity. One month after President Barack Obama unveiled Sotomayor as his nominee, Republicans have yet to uncover a smoking gun in Sotomayor’s past, and her confirmation is seen by many as a fait accompli.
“I think the Sotomayor strategy is pretty obvious,” said one GOP leadership aide. “Respectfully asking questions but very pointedly asking about the appearance of favoritism. Americans don’t like the idea that a judge might play favorites.”
And that’s where Judiciary Committee Republicans hope to keep their focus.
“There are some real questions, and she has done some things that raise real questions in people’s minds — and they have to be explored,” said Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, one of the senior Republicans on the committee.
Republicans realize that the concerted last-minute push to brand Sotomayor as a judge prone to partiality presents them with their only shot at creating at least some doubt among undecided senators.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a Judiciary Committee member, told POLITICO Tuesday that Sotomayor risked losing Democratic support if she emerged from the hearings with the appearance of a closed-minded jurist — a scenario, he warned, that could put Sotomayor in a tough spot.
“If she does poorly at the hearing and comes across as someone who seems as an activist, is not qualified for the job, that could hurt her,” Graham said. “That she embraces some judicial theories that would make red-state Democrats uncomfortable — that’s the only way I think she’d get off-track.”
Republicans began this final pre-hearing push Tuesday, taking to the Senate floor to pick apart specific parts of Sotomayor’s record.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) harped on Sotomayor’s appellate decision in the Ricci v. DeStefano case, which was reversed last week when the Supreme Court determined that white firefighters in New Haven, Conn., had been discriminated against on a promotion exam.
“In the Ricci case — her third and final reversal of this term — Judge Sotomayor was so wrong in interpreting the law that all nine justices, of all ideological stripes, disagreed with her,” said McConnell. “As we consider her nomination to the Supreme Court, my colleagues should ask themselves this important question: Is she allowing her personal or political agenda to cloud her judgment and favor one group of individuals over another, irrespective of what the law says?”
Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, has latched onto Sotomayor’s work with the Puerto Rican Legal Defense Fund — an organization, Sessions argued, that took an aggressive stance in criticizing the process of standardized testing.
He didn’t hesitate to mention that Sotomayor had worked for PRLDEF years prior to her decision in the Ricci case — and to suggest that her decision in the case had been influenced by her personal bias.
“And so we’re left to wonder: What role did the judge’s personal experience play when she heard the case? Did her personal views, as she as stated, quote ‘affect the facts she chose to see?’” Sessions said at the end of a scathing 18-minute floor speech.
Republicans are still undecided about whether to use delay tactics to slow down the Judiciary Committee’s vote. One Senate Republican aide said Tuesday that all options were on the table.
Democrats, knowing they probably have the votes to confirm Sotomayor, are almost dismissive of the GOP attacks.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Pat Leahy (D-Vt.) is casting Sotomayor as an experienced judge with a rich background — and as someone whose record puts her in the mainstream of American legal thought.
As McConnell and Sessions headed to the floor to blast Sotomayor, Leahy held a news conference to unveil a host of Sotomayor endorsements from law enforcement officials.
“It can be said with confidence that Judge Sotomayor is unquestionably a consensus judge on criminal justice issues,” Leahy said. “In fact, Judge Sotomayor’s criminal justice record proves she is a moderate judge whose decisions in criminal cases rarely differ from those of her colleagues on the federal bench.”
Asked earlier if the Republican critique of Sotomayor as a closed-minded jurist had any merit, Leahy responded only: “No.”
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Per the Landmark U.S. Supreme Court Case: 1964 case of New York Times v. Sullivan………
The Public has a Right to Criticize the People who Govern them, so the least Protection from Defamation is given to Public Officials. When officials are accused of something that involves their behavior in office, they have to prove all of the above elements of defamation and they must also prove that the defendant acted with “actual malice.” (For a definition of actual malice, see the “History of Defamation and the First Amendment, below.”)
People who aren’t Elected but who are Still Public Figures because they are influential or famous — like Actors, Actresses, Movie Stars, Singers & Entertainers, Journalists, TV Hosts, Bloggers, etc., — also have to Prove that Defamatory statements were made with Actual Malice, in most cases.
To the Associated Press and other Media Organizations:
When I use your Content Links., I’m also citing the Fair Use Doctrine (Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107) for further Copyright permission.
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Laurel @BLACK POLITICAL BUZZ
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