Saturday, July 31, 2010

Partisan Decision-Making

The recent decision striking down part of Arizona's new immigration law was a clear example of "result-oriented jurisprudence".

Judge Bolton simply ignored the proper basis for review of the Obama Administration's request for an injunction and reached the result desired by her liberal instincts. You can read scholarly analysis of the decision at National Review Online

My view is that the Obama administration is blind to the result of their "victory". This is yet another example of liberals in positions of power telling us "unwashed" that we don't know what's good for us. The President tells us that the Arizona law is bad and he sues the State of Arizona to stop its enforecement. This despite the fact that clear majorities around the country think the law is the right idea. A Rasmussen poll out today says that 68% of Americans believe we should complete a border fence.

I can only hope that in November the American people remind President Obama and Judge Bolton that we live in a democratic republic and that "important" people like them derive their power from the consent of the governed. And the governed can withdraw their consent!

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Quick Thoughts on Green Nomination

Monroe County DA, Mike Green, has been tapped by Senator Chuck Schumer as the replacement for retiring Federal Judge, David Larimer.

Many local observers will focus on Green's questionable and unsucessful prosecutions of Andy Moore and James Smith and the allegation that this nomination is the pay-off for those "political" prosecutions. Number me as one of those who feels that those prosecutions had a large political component. I was actually surprised that the Democrat & Chronicle story on the nomination acknowledged the controversey.

No matter what anyone thinks about the nature of those prosecutions, there is a bright side to the Green nomination for conservatives. Mike Green is not an ideological liberal Democrat. Not that long ago most Republicans expected him to be the GOP nominee for DA. Tom Cook and Steve Minarik decided otherwise, however, Green will not likely be an "activist" Federal Judge. His rulings are likely to reflect his moderate to consevative political background.

Given some of the other names under consideration, we could do worse than have Mike Green on the Federal Bench.