Senate to Vote Thursday on Appeals Court Nominee Who Said Judges Can Amend the Consti

[Revmitchell]

U.S. senators on Thursday will debate and vote on the nomination of Judge David F. Hamilton, President Obama's first judicial nominee.

Hamilton, who would sit on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago if confirmed, has said his decisions as a federal judge can “amend” the U.S. Constitution by adding “footnotes” to it.

At the 2003 dedication of a U.S. courthouse in Indiana named after former Sen. Birch Bayh (D-Ind.), Hamilton quoted someone else's comment that judges write “footnotes.”

He told the audience: “Let’s start with the Constitution. Judge S. Hugh Dillin of this court has said that part of our job here as judges is to write a series of footnotes to the Constitution. We all do that every year in cases large and small.”.........

........But in an Oct. 30 letter to his colleagues, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), the Judiciary Committee's ranking Republican, said that Hamilton, in written answers to follow-up questions submitted by Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), had explained that making so-called footnotes to the Constitution was another means of amendment.

More Here

 

[KenH]

Apparently, an awful judicial viewpoint...


but a great last name. :thumbs:

 

[donnA]

of course obama would chose someoe like this, he thinks we need to rewrite the whole thing, take out those freedoms.

 

[abcgrad94]

So, whatever happened to "we the PEOPLE?" This administration looks more like a dictatorship every day, rather than a republic.

 

[Johnv]

but a great last name. :thumbs:

I knew you wouldn't let that pass

So, whatever happened to "we the PEOPLE?" This administration looks more like a dictatorship every day, rather than a republic.

Aside from perhaps the municipal level, we don't elect judges. They are appointed. That's the way the founding fathers intended it. Otherwise, judges would be making decisions according to popular opinion, and not according to the application of the law. Judges should NOT be ruling baed on popular opinion. One of the problems is that we often have judicial nominees that don't know how to separate popular opinion from judicial opinion.

 

[Robert Snow]

of course obama would chose someoe like this, he thinks we need to rewrite the whole thing, take out those freedoms.

Obama doesn't want to rewrite the Constitution. He wants to ignore and shread it.

 

[rbell]

Aside from perhaps the municipal level, we don't elect judges. They are appointed. That's the way the founding fathers intended it. Otherwise, judges would be making decisions according to popular opinion, and not according to the application of the law. Judges should NOT be ruling baed on popular opinion. One of the problems is that we often have judicial nominees that don't know how to separate popular opinion from judicial opinion.

But they SHOULD rule based on the Constitution...which this idiot they've nominated uses for toilet paper.

 

[KenH]

Judge Hamilton was confirmed today with a 59-39 vote.

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/19/senate-confirms-judge-to-appeals-court/

 

[donnA]

obama is working hard to destroy this country

 

[hillclimber1]

obama is working hard to destroy this country

Hopefully, his actions will succeed in instead, destroying the liberal faction, which is huge, in the democrat party. I'm just not sure the people are involved, or awake enough to notice the destruction being unleashed.

 

[KenH]

Until we have a major limited government party to take on the Demopublican Party it won't matter if the people are involved or awake.

 

[Crabtownboy]

I would like to know the entire context of the statment. In a way every ruling by the Supreme Court is a footnote of the Constitution. A footnote does not make law just as in a research paper a footnote is not the main body of the paper.

Footnote:

1. an explanatory or documenting note or comment at the bottom of a page, referring to a specific part of the text on the page.
2. a minor or tangential comment or event added or subordinated to a main statement or more important event.

www.dictionary.com

I am not sure the comment by this potential judge is a problem ... I am not sure it is not a problem. But it is a statement that can be used to fairly or unfairly criticize. Criticism is easy. Finding the truth is often not so easy.