LAC News
Redux, Reuse, Recycle
By By: Marian L. Ward
February 2009

 “While the initiative for selection originates with the president, we have [a] solemn responsibility to get a sense of the person the president has selected. …Too often, we have made a grave error in failing to press nominees on their policy positions only to find out later that their positions are anathema once they are in office.” — Former Senator and current Vice President Joe Biden in 1981, as quoted by the Washington Post in a January 13 article.

David W. Ogden — Deputy Attorney General

Dr. Janice Shaw Crouse, Director and Senior Fellow of Concerned Women for America’s Beverly LaHaye Institute, called David Ogden’s nomination to the Department of Justice a “nightmarish possibility.”  Mr. Ogden is yet another rollover from the Clinton administration Justice Department.  He served as a top aide to then-Attorney General Janet Reno.  Notable clients on his résumé include: Playboy, Penthouse, and the ACLU.  Concerned Women for America (CWA) and numerous other groups have opposed his nomination based on a dubious record. 

Fidelis.org aptly describes Ogden as “an obscene choice,” citing his filing of briefs opposing parental notification for a minor’s abortion, opposing the U.S. military policy barring homosexuals serving in uniform, and considering “worldwide consensus” and international law before judges rule in a case.  He also litigated on behalf of the American Library Association, arguing against the use of Internet filters in public libraries to protect children from online pornography.

Ogden is the author of a Supreme Court brief claiming that abortion has no negative impact on women.  He goes a step further in that brief, insinuating that childbirth is actually worse for a woman’s psychological health than abortion, stating, “The evidence shows that she is more likely to experience feelings of relief and happiness, and when child-birth and child-rearing or adoption may pose concomitant (if not greater) risks or adverse psychological effects.”

Mr. Ogden also believes taxpayers should fund the publication of Playboy magazine in Braille at the Library of Congress.

Thomas Perrelli — Associate Attorney General

Thomas Perrelli is another familiar face from Janet Reno’s Justice Department who expands on the anti-life litmus test President Obama is using in his Department of Justice selections.  Perrelli served as counsel to the former Attorney General, but his real “claim to fame” is that he represented (pro-bono) Michael Schiavo, the now-infamous husband of Terri Schiavo, in Mr. Schiavo’s efforts to starve his invalid wife to death.

Perrelli’s representation of Democratic voters and legislators on issues regarding the 2000 census is also a matter of controversy.  This conflict of interest is inviting increased scrutiny as President Obama’s chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, tests the waters on moving census oversight from the Commerce Department to the White House.

Elena Kagan — Solicitor General

Elena Kagan has advocated for policies that undermine military standards and treat our national security as a social experiment.  She appeared at Harvard Law School’s 2007 Lambda Gay and Lesbian Legal Advocacy Conference, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” and was thanked for her “…continuing support for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered community here at Harvard.”  In a 1993 University of Chicago Law Review article discussing the Supreme Court decision in R.A.V. v. City of St. Paul, she also suggested that more civil remedies should be available to victims of “hate speech.”

Kagan is a staunch critic of the Solomon Amendment, which bars federal aid to universities that prevent military recruitment on campus, and is coauthor of a brief against it because she believes that the military’s position against homosexuals is a “profound wrong — a moral injustice of the first order.”

Miss Kagan demonstrates hostility towards religion and religious organizations.  As a law clerk, Ms. Kagan authored a memo in the Bowen v. Kendrick case in which she discussed which organizations should receive funding to counsel teenagers regarding pregnancy.  In this memo Ms. Kagan said, “It would be difficult for any religious organization to participate in such projects without injecting some kind of religious teaching. … When government funding is to be used for projects so close to the central concerns of religion, all religious organizations should be off limits.”  These statements clearly demonstrate her complete lack of understanding and respect for the Establishment Clause.

Despite her extensive résumé, including serving as a high level lawyer and policy adviser to President Clinton, Elena Kagan has yet to argue a case before the Supreme Court.

The major concern about Kagan’s nomination as Solicitor General — besides her far-left record — is that it puts her name on the short list for a Supreme Court nomination.  Justice Ginsburg’s recent health issues make this concern all the more urgent.

Dawn Johnsen — Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Counsel

Dawn Johnsen rounds out the roster of what Kristan Hawkins, executive director for Students for Life, aptly dubbed the “culture of death” at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).  Johnsen’s most notable résumé highlights include: staff attorney for the ACLU’s Reproductive Freedom Project, legal director for National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League (NARAL), and advisor to President Clinton on abortion-related issues and executive orders.

Her pro-abortion record dates as far back as the Carter Administration.  While clerking for a judge on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, Johnsen wrote an article in which she asserts that “fetal rights” threaten a pregnant woman’s autonomy.  While responding to the Supreme Court’s decision in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, Johnsen argued that informed consent laws are inconsistent with fundamental [abortion] “rights.”  She is also an outspoken advocate of the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA).

Hilda Solis — Secretary of Labor

Tax issues seem to be the name of the game for President Obama’s nominees, and Hilda Solis is no exception.  According to a February 5 article in USA Today, she’s one of four major nominees entrenched in some sort of tax scandal.

Support for “card check,” or the Employee Free Choice Act (President Obama was a co-sponsor), is perhaps Solis’ most controversial subject.  The basic issue with “card check” is that it effectively eliminates the secret ballot and thus makes working environments more coercive towards union membership, thus inhibiting the “free choice” of employees it purports to protect.

Solis’ record in the U.S. House is decidedly pro-union, raising serious concerns about right-to-work laws and her ethically questionable advocacy on behalf of American Rights at Work (ARAW), a radical “Big Labor” group. 

Her evasiveness at her Senate hearings has also been a source of frustration.  When asked about her philosophy on right-to-work laws prohibiting workers from forced union membership or dues paying, her response was, “I don’t believe that I am qualified to address that at this time.”

Maybe it’s above Hilda Solis’ pay grade.