By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Writer
Even though the mainstream media is presenting President Barack Obama’s first judicial pick as a “moderate,” many say he’s anything but.
David Hamilton, a federal trial court judge from Indiana, is being nominated for a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit which is based in Chicago. According to The New York Times, the administration said Hamilton is “a kind of signal” to the type of jurists Obama is likely to nominate in what is expected to be a very contentious field of judicial appointments.
Their attempts to present Hamilton as a moderate have not been successful, however.
“David Hamilton, whom the President plans to nominate as his judicial bellwether, appears to be as moderate as Obama himself (which is to say, not at all),” writes Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council.
“As an Indiana trial judge, he ruled against abortion waiting periods, permitting chaplains to offer Christian prayer at the Indiana state house, and stiffer regulations for sex offenders. Hamilton’s resume includes a post with ACORN, a clerkship with liberal Judge Richard Cudahy, and a stint as the former head of the ACLU’s Hoosier chapter. President Obama and the New York Times believe this qualifies him as ‘moderate,’ but his record on the bench suggests a hostility to good law on issues of life and faith.”
In the case he is most recognized for, Hamilton struck down 188 years of allowing sectarian prayer to open the Indiana legislature, claiming it “advanced Christianity.” The decision was widely criticized and later overturned.
Just last year, Hamilton struck down as unconstitutional an amendment to the state law requiring convicted sex offenders to provide the authorities with personal information such as e-mail addresses and user names, and to allow their Internet use to be monitored and their home computers searched from time to time.
Hamilton said the amendment imposed on a person’s right to privacy.
Even though an unnamed administration official told the Times they “would like to put the history of the confirmation wars behind us,” many believe the nomination of Hamilton signals the exact opposite.
As Perkins said, ”That Obama’s first major judicial nominee would overturn two centuries of settled First Amendment law to erect the ACLU’s interpretation in its place is deeply troubling.”
© All Rights Reserved, Living His Life Abundantly/Women of Grace. http://www.womenofgrace.com
