Here is my column this week as I submitted it. I have added the "edit" done by the editor of the paper to show you why I am upset. Note the use of the word fair instead of fare. I assume that's what they were going for.
Loretta Lynch Confirmation Hearing
Loretta Lynch, who is President Obama’s nominee to become the 83rd Attorney General of the U.S., had her first Senate confirmation hearing on January 28. If confirmed she would be the first black woman to serve as attorney general, making her the second woman to serve as attorney general and the second African-American to hold the post.
Lynch’s hearing is the first to be held before the newly -elected Republican controlled Senate so many political observers were looking at it as a litmus test for how the President’s nominees during the last two years of his term will be treated. ***(Editor changed this last line to "how the President's nominees would fair during the last two years of his term.")
Jonathan Turley, one of the most outstanding Constitutional lawyers in the country, testified with regard to what he perceives as the erosion of the lines of separation between the executive and the legislative branches of the government.
Turley, a Democrat who has voted for the President twice, blames Eric Holder and the Department of Justice for the rise of presidential power and such erosion, calling it an “aggrandizement of authority”. He goes on to say that “the question is whether Ms. Lynch will (or can) tack back to calmer constitutional waters to the benefit of not only the integrity of our Constitution but of the Department itself...because the separation of powers is the core of our constitutional system.”
Republicans on the whole were pleased to hear her say that capital punishment is “an effective penalty” and that she disagreed with the President’s statements that marijuana was no more harmful than alcohol.
On the other side of the political coin, she seemed to uphold the National Security Agency’s collection of American citizens’ phone records referring to the action as “certainly constitutional, and effective.”
She has been very aggressive as a prosecutor in pursuing civil asset forfeiture. She recently announced that her office had collected more than $904 million in criminal and civil actions in fiscal 2013, according to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. However, both liberals and conservatives have begun to question forfeiture as an abuse of due process that can punish the innocent.
Her most controversial statements were made with regard to immigration and abortion. When questioned as to whether she agreed with the President’s executive action on immigration, she said that she found it “reasonable” adding that the president’s actions were a “reasonable way to marshal limited resources to deal with the problem.”
The President’s executive action put the deportation of millions of illegal immigrants on hold but Lynch said it would allow border patrol agents to focus on dangerous criminals before turning their attention to other illegals.
Senator Sessions brought up the question: “Who has more right to a job in this country, a lawful immigrant or a citizen, or a person who entered the country illegally?”
Lynch said her understanding of the law is that it does not automatically grant illegal immigrants a right to work, but she goes ahead to say “I believe that the right and obligation to work is shared by everyone in this country, regardless of how they came here.”
On the subject of abortion, Lynch admitted to Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina that she had once signed on to an amicus brief which Planned Parenthood submitted in the partial abortion case brought to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court eventually sided against Planned Parenthood and upheld the ban. Lynch’s argument in favor of overturning the Congressional ban on partial birth abortions was that it was “unconstitutionally vague and threatens the integrity of the criminal justice system”.
The second day of the hearing, which Lynch did not attend, featured witnesses who spoke on behalf of issues which they hope the new Attorney General will address during his or her term.
They included Catherine Engelbrecht, founder of True The Vote and the plaintiff in a lawsuit brought against the IRS after being targeting by the tax agency; Milwaukee County Wisconsin Sheriff David Clarke, Jr. who has accused Eric Holder of making comments about race and law enforcement officers after the Ferguson MO riots, thus fueling the fires of racial tension; and Sharyl Attkisson who has recently filed a lawsuit against the DOJ accusing the administration of hacking into her computer because of her investigation into the “Fast and Furious” scandal.
Lynch only needs a vote of approval from three Republican senators on the committee to be confirmed.
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