AFA of PA ACTION ALERT
July 19, 2010
Issues (check corresponding number in ‘Details’ and ‘Action’ Sections)
1.) Vote on Elena Kagan Nomination
2.) Harrisburg Mayor Prays!
Details
1.) Senate Judiciary vote on the nomination of Elena Kagan will probably come on July 20th. Senator Arlen Specter has said, even though Kagan answered none of his questions on the issues, she has ‘done just enough’ to get his vote in Committee. Let see: that means she thinks it’s a good idea to televise the cases tried before the Supreme Court and Justice Thurgood Marshall is her role model! Those answers qualify her to serve on the highest court in the land? Specter and too many others will ignore her lack of judicial experience, her few academic writings and her lack of litigation experience prior to her 1 ½ years as US Solicitor General.
We do know that as Solicitor General, Kagan asserted before the Supreme Court that government could ban political pamphlets. As a law clerk, Elena Kagan recommended that the Supreme Court not even hear a claim that the District of Columbia’s complete ban on handguns violates the Second Amendment — a claim that recently succeeded at the Court. As dean of Harvard Law School, Kagan restricted military recruiters’ access to campus. Kagan’s actions, which were based upon a court of appeals decision that did not even apply to Harvard, violated the Solomon Amendment. It was only after the Department of Defense threatened to cut off Harvard’s funding that Kagan granted military recruiters customary access to campus. In a letter to Senator Specter during her Solicitor General confirmation hearings, Kagan wrote, “There are some circumstances in which it may be proper for judges to consider foreign law sources in ruling on constitutional questions,” such as the Eighth Amendment. And who is her ‘judicial hero’ – an Israeli judge famous for his aggressive judicial activism.
Shannen Coffin, deputy assistant attorney general in charge of the defense of the federal Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act during the Bush Administration, wrote in National Review that in 1997 Kagan essentially re-wrote a key section of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists’ (ACOG) position onpartial-birth abortion. ACOG sent Kagan a draft of a statement in which ACOG stated they “could identify no circumstances under which [the partial-birth abortion] procedure…would be the only option to save the life or preserve the health of the woman.”
Kagan knew this would destroy pro-abortion arguments in the courts. So she wrote in an internal memorandum noting the ACOG statement “would be a disaster…” for the upcoming partial-birth abortion case. Kagan then contacted ACOG and proposed that their statement be re-written as follows:
“An intact D&X [the medical term used for the horrendous partial-birth abortion procedure], however, may be the best or most appropriate procedure in a particular circumstance to save the life or preserve the health of a woman.”
Kagan intentionally and purposefully manipulated the ACOG finding, inverting the meaning of the initial finding! Kagan’s wording was incorporated into the final document and was later submitted as evidence from ACOG to the Supreme Court.
Later, the Supreme Court cited the ACOG document – the same one Kagan had manipulated – when striking down the Nebraska partial-birth abortion ban. Coffin concludes:
“Miss Kagan’s decision to override a scientific finding with her own calculated distortion in order to protect access to the most despicable of abortion procedures seriously twisted the judicial process. One must question whether her nomination to the Court would have the same effect.”
2.) Last week a city employee filed a complaint with the ACLU because Harrisburg Mayor Linda Thompson opens staff meetings with prayer. The ACLU has sent the mayor a letter telling her she is breaking the law and to stop ‘coercing’ people to pray. The mayor has indicated she has no intention of stopping her prayers for the city!
Action Steps
1.) You can view the Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings of Elena Kagan by clicking here. Contact Senator Specter’s office and let him know that Elena Kagan’s lack of answers, lack of judicial or litigation experience and lack of academic writings should equate to his lack of support for her lifetime appointment to the United States Supreme Court. Ask him to vote ‘no’ on the confirmation of Elena Kagan. Click here for contact info.
2.) Should Mayor Linda Thompson open staff meetings with prayer — take part in the WGAL poll. Contact the mayor’s office to thank her for her stand — 717-255-3050 or e-mail balton@cityofhbg.com
Loading ...