Pro-life groups alarmed by Obama appeals court nominee

June 05, 2009

The Senate Judiciary Committee has voted to approve Judge Lee Hamilton, a fomer vice president for litigation of the American Civil Liberties Union, for a position on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Judge Hamilton’s nomination now faces a full vote by the Senate, along with the possibility of a filibuster.

Approved for a federal district judgeship in 1994 despite a “not qualified” rating by the American Bar Association, Judge Hamilton has consistently blocked the implementation of Indiana’s pro-life informed consent law-- earning a rebuke from the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, on which President Barack Obama has nominated him to serve. “No court anywhere in the country (other than one district judge in Indiana [i.e., Hamilton]) has held any similar law invalid in the years since Casey," the appeals court judges wrote in 2002 as they reversed a decision made by Judge Hamilton. "[I]t is an abuse of discretion for a district judge to issue a pre-enforcement injunction while the effects of the law (and reasons for those effects) are open to debate."

 

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Further information:

• Senate Judiciary Committee OKs Pro-Abortion Obama Judge David Hamilton (LifeNews.com)
• A WOMAN'S CHOICE-EAST SIDE WOMEN'S CLINIC, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. Scott C. NEWMAN (United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit, 2002)