Obama's Most Partisan Appointments and Nominations, Part 1: The Men

A President has the right to nominate judges and high-appointment candidates who share his platform. However, he is supposed to make some gesture to honor the American ideal of a fair and impartial government.

During his campaign, President Obama promised "post-partisanship"--an end to partisan politics. Yet he's done just the opposite with many significant appointments and nominations. Except for placing conservatives in a few gratuitous positions that don't matter in the scheme of social issues, President Obama has demonstrated his willingness to keep the scales unbalanced by favoring the loudest voices on the left. Even moderate liberals should be outraged at some of these appointments.

David Ogden, new Deputy Attorney General at the Justice Department: The porn industry sings Ogden's praises as an attorney. XBiz, a leading adult news outlet, called Ogden a "champion of adult entertainment." Ogden once represented Playboy Enterprises in a suit against the federal government when the Library of Congress refused to print Braille versions of the magazine. He argued against Internet Porn filtering systems in libraries. And He filed a brief for the ACLU supporting a man convicted of possessing child pornography. Every defendant deserves legal counsel. But if Ogden had done similar actions for conservative causes, he would never have passed muster for this appointment.

Liberals were outspoken about the Bush administration defending Big Oil and Big Pharma. But there is silence about Ogden's defense of Shell Oil Company against litigation by Nicaraguan workers for damaged health, and his defense of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America to prevent caps on the price of patented prescription drugs.

Ogden has also defended abortion clinics' rights to give abortions to underage girls without parental notification. He co-authored a brief for the American Psychological Association in the case of Hartigan v Zbaraz arguing there is no difference between 14-year-olds and adults with regard to their ability to think of options and consequences. A 2005 National Institutes of Health Study shows the risky behavior of the modern adolescent brain now goes up to age 25. Dr. Jay Geidd of the study explains that the frontal cortex, which governs judgment, impulsiveness and decision-making ability, doesn't fully mature until then.

Liberals often accuse conservative nominees of intending to use their personal views to abuse their new positions. There's no guarantee the liberal-minded Ogden won't be influenced by his own views. Nevertheless, he has been confirmed.

Judge David Hamilton, Obama's first federal judicial pick for the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals: Keep in mind that Appeals Court judges are just below the Supreme Court. Hamilton's record as a U.S. District Court Judge demonstrates an avid stance against biblical faith with a misunderstanding about the First Amendment, and against pro-life issues.

In 2005, Hamilton ordered the Speaker of the Indiana House to stop allowing individuals' prayers in the name of Jesus at house sessions. He said it amounted to state endorsement of a religion, and that private individuals give up their free speech rights when stepping to a government podium. This is incorrect. Individuals of various religions have been allowed to do the opening prayer. It was a violation of free speech to single out Christians.

Ironically, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, where Hamilton himself might serve, overturned his decision because no taxpayer money was used in bringing the clergy to pray, therefore it did not violate "separation of church and state."

Hamilton issued rulings preventing Indiana from enforcing its accepted informed-consent law requiring abortionists to inform women about abortion procedure risks. The indiana law matched the Pennsylvania statute upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v Casey. However, Hamilton struck down the informed consent law without considering the Supreme Court precedent. This ruling was also reversed by the Seventh Appeals Court, ruling Hamilton's decision an abuse of discretion.

Before serving as a district judge, Hamilton was a board member of the Indiana American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and a fundraiser for the same activist group ACORN that was questioned all through Obama's campaign. The ACLU consistently works on cases which take biblical faith out of public life based on a false interpretation of the First Amendment.

Harold Koh, Obama's pick for Legal Adviser to the Department of State: If confirmed, Koh will represent America at the United Nations and the International Court of Justice. As the State Department's top legal adviser, Koh will help implement U.S. foreign policy. It is a dangerous position from which to advocate his radical views.

This former dean of Yale Law School is a "transnationalist." A transnationalist believes that American law should be interpreted according to international laws instead of the U.S. Constitution. According to his International Law Review article, Why Transnational Law Matters, Koh believes that U.S. courts must look not only to the national interest of the American people, but to the mutual interests of all nations.

Koh filed a brief in the Supreme Court case Lawrence v Texas citing foreign constitutions, foreign court decisions and international treaties which have never been ratified by the United States. The Supreme Court's decision was partly based on how foreign countries were handling this issue.

The fact that Lawrence v Texas legalized sodomy (between consenting adults) is completely beside the point. Whatever a case is about, it should scare the daylights out of every American that the precedents being considered at the Supreme Court are not based on American laws. Before retiring, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor confirmed the Supreme Court was considering international laws in its decisions. Koh's transnational ideals will help to undermine American national sovereignty (our independence from foreign government rule).

Many other claims about these three candidates' possible inability to be objective could not be confirmed outside arenas that could be called "far-right" or "far-left." Therefore, this writer gave them no credence. Great care has been taken to find sources that are fact-balanced, some even coming from outside the writer's own perspective.

Watch for Part 2 of this article, Obama's Most Partisan Appointments and Nominations - The Women.

Sources:
David Ogden:
-Xbiz: http://m.xbiz.com/news_piece.php?id=107430&t=all.
-Who Runs Government: http://www.whorunsgov.com/Profiles/David_Ogden.
-Law.com, http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202428118754.
-Supreme Court, Hartigan v Baraz, 484 U.S. 171, 1987, p.18. http://www.psy.jhu.edu/~200.326/pdf/Hartigan%20v.%20Zbaraz%20APA%20brief.pdf.
Judge Hamilton:
-Jewsonfirst.org, http://www.jewsonfirst.org/05a/sep022.html.
-USA Today, The Oval:http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2009/03/64265257/1.
-Supreme Court, Planned Parenthood of Southeastern PA v Casey, 505 U.S. 833 (1992). http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=505&invol=833.
-Faith in Public Life http://blog.faithinpubliclife.org/2009/03/on_hamiltons_indiana_prayer_ru_1.html.
Harold Koh:
-Harold Koh's Transnationalism, Ed Whelan at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, 4/16/09, http://www.eppc.org/publications/pubID.3793/pub_detail.asp.
-Koh, Why Transnational Law Matters, 24 Penn St. Int'l Law Review, pp. 745, 749-750 (2006).
-Supreme Court, Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558 (2003). http://www.supremecourtus.gov/oral_arguments/argument_transcripts/02-102.pdf.
Justice O'Connor looking to international law, quoted from Atlanta Journal Constitution at: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35367.