On their way out the door, the Senators of the 111th Congress confirmed a batch of judicial appointments. The Senate Daily Digest is here.
Speaking of the Ninth, Goodwin Liu is not on the list. He is the Berkeley law professor who attacked Samuel Alito as "out of the mainstream" in large part because Alito voted for the murderer in only 40% of the capital cases to come before him. Liu's view of the "mainstream" would have required something like 90%. This demonstrates that Liu is so far to the left he has no idea where the middle is.
The President can, of course, renominate Liu for consideration by the 112th Congress, but I hope he will not.
AP story is here. WSJ story by Evan Perez is here. WSJ Law Blog post by Nathan Koppel is here.
Correction: This post earlier stated that Robert Chatigny was among those confirmed. The digest page cited actually lists his nomination as among those returned to the President.
Speaking of the Ninth, Goodwin Liu is not on the list. He is the Berkeley law professor who attacked Samuel Alito as "out of the mainstream" in large part because Alito voted for the murderer in only 40% of the capital cases to come before him. Liu's view of the "mainstream" would have required something like 90%. This demonstrates that Liu is so far to the left he has no idea where the middle is.
The President can, of course, renominate Liu for consideration by the 112th Congress, but I hope he will not.
AP story is here. WSJ story by Evan Perez is here. WSJ Law Blog post by Nathan Koppel is here.
Correction: This post earlier stated that Robert Chatigny was among those confirmed. The digest page cited actually lists his nomination as among those returned to the President.
Chatigny is an absolute disgrace. The damage he does is that he is clearly unfit for any judicial office. It's basically the same damage that Sotomayor does. Her conduct was so deplorable in the Ricci case, she brings discredit upon the courts and the person who nominated her, and the Senators that voted to confirm her.
Chatigny seems brighter than Sotomayor though.
Kent: I take no solace in the lament " he can not do much damage." Chatigny's activist, injudicious, conduct in the Roadside Strangler case where he declared sexual sadism a "mitigating factor" in the murder of 8 young women and failed to disclose he had previously represented Ross 13 years before is an absolute disqualifier.
federalist: Being "brighter" only portends he can do more damage.
No judge is better than a bad judge.
It is unfortunate that the American people were not smart enough to vote for a large Republican majority in the US Senate.
The Senate will probably rubber-stamp the appointments of even more activist judges.
But as far as the death penalty is concerned, the appointment of Robert Chatigny to the 2nd Circuit will likely have no impact on death penalty cases (except perhaps federal death penalty cases).
The 2nd Circuit comprises New York, Vermont and Connecticut. The first two states were wise enough to abolish capital punishment. But Connecticut is also on the verge of abolishing the death penalty under its next Governor, Dan Malloy.
Hallelujah!