JCN Press Release

WASHINGTON, D.C. --- The Judicial Crisis Network (Formerly: The Judicial Confirmation Network/www.judicialnetwork.com) in a letter delivered on Thursday, has respectfully asked Justice Maureen O'Connor to withdraw her candidacy for Chief Justice so the current balance of Ohio Supreme Court is preserved.

As it has been reported previously, and noted by Justice O'Connor herself, her candidacy for Chief Justice, if successful, will actually tilt the Supreme Court to the left. Win or lose Governor Strickland will be able to appoint Justice O'Connor's replacement and will undoubtedly appoint a liberal judicial activist to the court.

Statement of Gary A. Marx, Executive Director, Judicial Crisis Network: (Formerly Judicial Confirmation Network)

Just over a year into the new Administration and it has become abundantly clear that defenders of liberty and justice in America have an enormous task at hand. In fact, we face a crisis potentially more threatening than even the current economic crisis.

Friends and supporters of the Judicial Confirmation Network – which led the fight to confirm only highly qualified individuals to the U.S. Supreme Court - have urged the organization to broaden its mission to confront the radical legal and legislative threats facing the country.

We have chosen to accept this new challenge.

MARCH 17, 2009, WASHINGTON, D.C. --- The Judicial Confirmation Network (www.judicialnetwork.com) today reacted to President Obama's reported plans to make his first nomination to the U.S. Court of Appeals this week, Judge David Hamilton from Indiana:

"Judge Hamilton is no 'moderate,' as the Obama White House is trying to spin him. The fact is, he was vice-president for litigation and a board member of the Indiana chapter of the ACLU, and he appears to have made rulings that show his willingness to bend the law to reach outcomes favored by his ACLU allies, which are inconsistent with the proper role of a judge under our Constitution but which fit the pattern of ruling based upon 'heart' and 'empathy' for certain classes of litigants, which then-candidate Barack Obama said he would be looking for in judges during the campaign. The problem is, judges cannot rule on that basis; their job is to apply the law impartially and not favor certain types of litigants before the court.

"Today's Senate Judiciary Committee vote is a line in the sand: Republicans will no longer defer to confirmation of liberal judicial activists. The overwhelming, almost-unanimous Republican opposition to the nomination of Judge Sotomayor is a historical first.

"This vote will mark the moment when Senators began, in their constitutional exercise of 'advice and consent,' to push the Supreme Court back to its proper role of judicial restraint under the Constitution.

Last week, soon after the White House delivered Judge Sotomayor's Senate Judiciary Committee questionnaire in what it billed as record time, it became clear that Judge Sotomayor had failed to disclose an important memo she wrote for the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund (PRLDEF) arguing against the death penalty in New York.

"It now appears that she failed to disclose more than just that memo: the questionnaire contains many glaring omissions that would have given the Senate and the American public a better idea of who she is and how she approaches the law," said JCN counsel Wendy E. Long. "These omissions lead to the inescapable conclusion that the White House wants to rush through her nomination without giving Senators and the American people full transparency about Sotomayor's record."

The Judicial Confirmation Network (www.judicialnetwork.com) today launched a series of ads that expose the records of President Obama's reported frontrunners for the Supreme Court nomination to replace Justice Souter. The ads are available at www.obamasfrontrunners.com.

"With the bully pulpit of the Presidency, Congress, and the media under the control of liberals, the American people are getting a giant deception about the the liberal judicial activist philosophy of nominees floated as frontrunners," said Wendy Long . "They are not moderates or centrists; they hard-left activists who would decide cases based on their feelings and their personal political agendas."

Wendy E. Long, counsel to The Judicial Confirmation Network, today made the following statement on the United States Senate vote, 61 31, on the controversial nomination of Elena Kagan to be the Obama Administration's Solicitor General:...

The Judicial Confirmation Network today reacted to President Obama's reported plans to make his first nomination to the U.S. Court of Appeals this week, Judge David Hamilton from Indiana.

The Judicial Confirmation Network praised U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and all 41 Republican United States Senators for the letter they sent today to President Barack Obama setting forth some baseline procedures and standards on judicial nominees.

TO: JCN Members, Allies, and Interested Persons
FROM: Wendy Long, JCN Counsel

RE: Obama Judicial Nominations

Like many of you, we at JCN were disappointed that the federal courts received so little attention during the presidential campaign.

But here is the good news. We remain very bullish on the judges issue. Four essential points: