He's a brilliant legal mind and a credit to any bench. But I think the job that's most important to him is his role as father. He's very proud of his three sons, not one of whom wants to be a lawyer.
They must be even more brilliant.
A Captain in the Navy JAG, Smith served in Iraq at the height of the surge. When my daughter was sent there (for the Army), he always asked about her.
This is good news for Judge Smith.
Better news for the rest of us.
15 comments:
Congrats!!! Well deserved
Judge Smith is a fair and honorable man who has served his country with distinction. We should be proud of his nomination.
He's the only one of the NorCo bunch who works anything close to a 40-hour week. We'll likely get another sleepy time thief, now. Congrats to Ed, anyway.
wonderful news ... he is well deserving ,i wish him the best !
Now we can appoint Spadoni to the vacancy.
This one is a real head-scratcher.
I wonder if the Obama administration has done a thorough vetting of Judge Smith. Not that that he has any skeletons in his closet, but just that he doesn't exactly have the ideological background of which many liberals would approve. When he ran for Congress in 1996, he was to the right of all of his Republican opponents. I especially remember how he was opposed to abortion, even in the case of rape or incest.
The only thing I can guess is that this is part of some deal where Obama nominates a few Republicans in exchange for Republicans not filibustering some of his liberal judicial nominees.
Judge Smith is a jurist who understands that settled law must be followed. Settled law is Roe v. Wade, so let's move on. he is not being nominated to the Supreme Court.
I have no idea what his personal views on abortion might be, but do know he understands stare decisis.
You seem to want to torpedo his nomination.
I doubt that Rowe v. Wade will ever be overturned, but there certainly is the possibility that parts of it can be altered. For example, Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992) allowed states to impose a 24 hour waiting period for abortions. Advances in medical technology may shorten the time in which fetal viability occurs, causing the courts to revisit Roe.
Judge Smith's personal views on abortion are easily discovered by a quick Google search:
http://articles.mcall.com/1996-04-11/news/3096916_1_fec-contributions-debate
Kilbanks opposes abortion except in cases of rape or incest. Edward Smith opposes any abortion. And Brose and Ken Smith support abortion rights.
I do not want to torpedo his nomination. I am just surprised that even if Obama is throwing a bone to Republicans, he would do so with someone so conservative. Surely there are some squishy moderate Republicans out there.
800,000 mostly convenience abortions per year, 60 years after the dawn of birth control and Kevin is nervous.
Perhaps only a lawyer can understand this, but a person's individual feelings about an issue really have nothing to do with how they will rule on an issue. That will be governed by precedent and legal interpretation. In the case of Judge Smith, who has been on the bench since 2002, that is particularly so.
If that were the case then every judge would rule the same way on a particular case. No judge would ever be reversed by a superior court. But of course these things do happen.
Don't get me wrong, I think that Smith will make a fine federal Judge. But I am not naive enough to believe that he will probably come down on the conservative side of things at least a little more then he does the liberal side.
I just don't see that issue - and i am not so sure his attitude now is what it was then -is something he will ever see. Maybe I'm wrong.
Kevin should have been aborted. Congrates judge smith!
Kevin was simply making an observation about Smith's ideology, not his character.
Bernie, I was surprised that you would parrot judges who like to say their personal beliefs don't influence their decisions. We all know that is total bull. There are so many cases on the books that a judge can pick and choose which one he wants to cite when rendering a decision to support his findings. Judges are human, with all their own bias and personal beliefs they bring with them to the bench. A perfect example is the black judge who cleared his court room of all white people. His reasoning may have been well intentioned, but it was his own bias that had him believing whites shouldn't hear what he had to say to the blacks.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7dNQkkn3WQ
I am saying that Judge Smith's personal beliefs would not influence his decision. Now give it a rest. The guy has yet to be confirmed.
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