March 18, 2009
We now have David Ogden in at the U.S. Department of Justice. Our concern
came to pass! Who leads or what guides this President? This President has
surrounded himself with promoters of pornography, abortion, homosexuality.
May America wake up before it's too late!
Robert Knight files the following insightful report.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
KNIGHT: Obama's porn king at Justice
Robert Knight
COMMENTARY:
Under President Obama, it was expected that porn pushers might find a sympathetic
ear, given the smut industry's generous support of liberal politicians and
causes.
But the fox is no longer circling the henhouse. He's made it inside. On March
12, the "world's greatest deliberative body," the U.S. Senate, voted
65 to 28 to elevate porn attorney David Ogden to be deputy attorney general.
Eleven senators from the "Party of Family Values" (Lamar Alexander,
Kit Bond, Susan Collins, Lindsey Graham, Judd Gregg, Jon Kyl, Richard Lugar,
presidential nominee John McCain, Olympia Snowe, Arlen Specter and George
Voinovich) joined a nearly unanimous Democrat roster (minus Robert Casey of
Pennsylvania) in deciding that a man who defended child pornography during
the Clinton years, as well as hard-core porn producers, plus Playboy and Penthouse,
is suited to be the No. 2 law enforcer in the nation.
The Senate also voted 70 to 20 to confirm Thomas Perelli as associate attorney
general, the No. 3 Justice post. Mr. Perelli represented Michael Schiavo,
who had remarried and had his brain-damaged ex-wife Terri Schiavo taken off
life support against the wishes of her parents and brother.
Sen. Patrick Leahy, Vermont Democrat, who spoke on his behalf, said Mr. Ogden's
legal work on behalf of the smut industry was just a "sliver" of
his record and in any case did not reflect his "personal" views
or values. Would lawyers working for corporate polluters or pro-life groups
get that kind of pass?
Mr. Ogden's elevation marks a major victory for pornographers, the abortion
industry and the homosexual movement, among others. It's hard to imagine a
more radical nominee in terms of legal social engineering.
On Nov. 4, 1993, in a vote of 100 to 0, the U.S. Senate passed a nonbinding
resolution censuring the Justice Department for refusing to defend the conviction
of a child pornographer. In that case, Knox v. United States, Mr. Ogden had
filed a friend of the court brief for the American Civil Liberties Union that
argued that close-ups of children's crotches in videos such as "Little
Girl Bottoms (Underside)" and "Little Blondes" were not child
pornography and thus merited constitutional protection. A week later, President
Clinton issued a letter rebuking Attorney General Janet Reno and asking for
tougher child pornography enforcement. A few months later, the House added
its censure by a vote of 425 to 3.
If this had been an isolated incident that Mr. Ogden now regrets, that would
be one thing, but he has a long track record of siding with radical proponents
of the sexual revolution.
Brian Burch, president of the Catholic-based public policy group Fidelis,
has authored a memo outlining Mr. Ogden's extensive career issuing briefs
on behalf of pornographers, abortionists and homosexual pressure groups, among
others. Here are a few of Mr. Ogden's activities:
- Opposed the Children's Internet Protection Act of 2000. Mr. Ogden filed
an amicus brief arguing against Congress requiring public libraries that accept
tax funding to install Internet filters, even on computers in the children's
areas.
- Challenged the Child Protection and Obscenity Enforcement Act of 1988.
Specifically, Mr. Ogden's brief on behalf of porn producers argued that requiring
them to verify that performers were at least 18 years of age would "burden
too heavily and infringe too deeply" on their First Amendment rights.
- Represented Playboy Enterprises in a 1986 suit that forced the Library
of Congress to print Playboy magazine's articles in Braille, an outcome Mr.
Ogden said was a key victory in "turning the tide in the censorship battle."
He also sought an injunction against including Playboy in a list of porn magazines
to be part of the Meese Commission report (1990).
- Filed numerous briefs in other pornography and obscenity cases before the
Supreme Court.
- Opposed parental notification for minors undergoing abortions (1987).
- Opposed virtually all restrictions on abortions, from spousal notification
to mandatory, 24-hour delays, in a brief for Planned Parenthood filed in the
landmark Casey v. Planned Parenthood (1992).
- Characterized peaceful pro-life abortion protesters as the moral equivalent
of mobsters by arguing they come under the RICO organized crime statute (Sheidler
v. National Organization for Women (2003).
- Declared that "homosexuality is a normal form of human sexuality"
as counsel for the American Psychological Association in Lawrence v. Texas
(2003), in which the Supreme Court struck down the Texas sodomy law. That
profoundly bold judicial power grab has been the linchpin for further gay
rights advances, including state court rulings striking down marriage laws
in Massachusetts, California and Connecticut.
- Sought to overturn the military's policy on service by open homosexuals
(Watkins v. United States Army (1989), arguing that sexual preference (sexual
orientation) is the equivalent of race.
There's more. Mr. Ogden has backed the intrusion of international law into
American courts, the "right" of protesters to trespass on private
property, the use of "compassion" to override "precedent and
logic," and he has filed several briefs seeking to limit enforcement
of the death penalty. His briefs are littered with junk science that was specifically
designed to undermine cultural norms.
As deputy attorney general, Mr. Ogden will be sworn to defend the Constitution
and the laws of the United States. That will be a tall order for someone who
has spent years inventing novel legal arguments in pursuit of a far-left social
agenda.
Robert Knight is a senior writer at Coral Ridge Ministries and a senior
fellow at the American Civil Rights Union.
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