LeMieux Forgot Voting To Confirm Judge
By Jesse Phillips
Florida Judicial Review
On Saturday, the four front-runners in the race to unseat Bill Nelson in the US Senate participated in a debate hosted by the Florida Family Policy Council and Central Florida Tea Party Council.
One of the topics discussed was judicial activism. Javier Manjarres from the Shark Tank reported:
“A big issue at the forum was the topic of Judicial activism. LeMieux voted against the confirmation of U.S. Supreme Court Judge Kagan and state that judges need to interpret the law as written-” they are there to call balls and strikes,” he said. McCalister agreed and stated that judges “need to follow the Constitution, or they need to be replaced.” Miller agreed with all, but Hasner went a little further and stated that he opposed administrative appointments, i.e. czars,etc, not just judges”
LEMIEUX DOES NOT REMEMBER CONFIRMING JUDGE
Former Senator George LeMieux was asked about his vote to confirm judge Thomas I. Vanaskie, a judge that twenty Senate Republicans voted against, amidst concerns that he inappropriately cites foreign law precedents.
When asked about his decision to buck the GOP attempts to block his nomination, LeMieux said that he did not remember the vote. The LeMeiux campaign was contacted after the debate for clarification, and said that the matter would be discussed to determine what rationale was used in confirming Vanaskie.
JUDICIAL ACTIVISM COMING TO THE FOREFRONT
Judicial activism is becoming an increasingly important issue heading into the 2012 election. One thing that was not discussed was the Florida state Supreme Court, which has three Justices facing a merit retention vote.
Voters will decide the fate of Justices Pariente, Quince and Lewis, when their names appear on next election’s ballot.
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A bit more information on the Vanaskie confirmation vote. Republican objections to his nomination were based on essentially one criticism – that Judge Vanaskie inappropriately cites foreign law precedents. Vanaski explained in his testimony before the Judiciary Committee that he was following Supreme Court decisions when it relied upon foreign sources in Lawrence v. Texas and Roper v. Simmons. In Lawrence, the Supreme Court majority cited the European Court of Human Rights in a decision overruling its own prior precedent on the criminalizing of consensual gay sex. In Roper, the court cited international law to support a ruling striking down the death penalty when applied to individuals who committed murder before they were 18. In short, Judge Vanaskie was following the Supreme Court’s lead.
Proper debate etiquette would have been to cite the cases in a follow-up with the other candidates as well and ask for their opinion on which way they would have voted. On the follow-up to Miller asking if citing international law would be a deal breaker and grounds for rejection, Miller also took the path that LeMieux took in stating that international law has no standing but did not answer the direct question. The other two candidates
The confirmation vote of Republicans is as follows;
Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the ranking Republican Judiciary member, voted to approve Vanaskie, saying he would “give him the benefit of the doubt.” But he said judges should not allude to a foreign country’s law in rulings as Vanaskie did once. In addition to LeMieux, Alexander (R-TN), Bond (R-MO), Brown (R-MA), Collins (R-ME), Graham (R-SC), Gregg (R-NH), Hatch (R-UT), Kyl (R-AZ), Lugar (R-IN), McCain (R-AZ), McConnell (R-KY), Murkowski (R-AK), Sessions (R-AL), Shelby (R-AL), Snowe (R-ME), Vitter (R-LA), Voinovich (R-OH) voted Aye.
Bennett (R-UT), Johanns (R-NE) – Not Voting
Barrasso (R-WY), Brownback (R-KS), Bunning (R-KY), Burr (R-NC), , Chambliss (R-GA), Coburn (R-OK), Cochran (R-MS), Cornyn (R-TX), Crapo (R-ID), DeMint (R-SC), Ensign (R-NV), Enzi (R-WY), Grassley (R-IA), Hutchison (R-TX), Inhofe (R-OK), Isakson (R-GA), Risch (R-ID), Roberts (R-KS), Thune (R-SD), Wicker (R-MS) voted Nay.
My conclusion of this debate question is that all candidates oppose the concept of trumping U.S. Law with International Law. On the follow-up I concluded that LeMieux chose to side with the ranking Republican Judiciary member and the Senate Minority Leader. I too posed the question to the LeMieux Campaign requesting to copied on their follow-up reply rationale and will post it if I receive it.
On a personal note, of the the Senators that I helped put in office, Chuck Grassley (I was living and voting in Iowa when he was first elected). and Kay Bailey Hutchinson (yep I was a Texas voter in the 1993 special election) voted Nay.