If there is one consistent in the Obama regime, President Obama’s picks for the Federal Judiciary are incredibly bad.
Now, the United States Senate is poised to confirm one of the worst nominees in the history of bad Obama nominees.
His name is David Barron.
He is a professor at Harvard Law School. He has been nominated to be a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit, which includes Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts and Puerto Rico.
As a general rule, anyone who is a professor at Harvard is absolutely, on general principles someone who should never be appointed to a court anywhere. Mr. Barron is especially bad.
While he was employed at President Obama’s Office of Legal Counsel, he authored secret memos, which gave a legal justification for the killing of Americans abroad by drone strikes.
Some conservative senators have threatened a filibuster unless those memos are turned over for review.
But Barron legal views are even worse. He is an open advocate for judicial activism on a radical scale. He has even called for the courts not even to use the pretense of the law in advancing a radical leftist agenda.
One of his most dangerous positions involves private property. In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court decided the Kelso case. This horrible case allowed local governments to use eminent domain to seize property for economic redevelopment. Mr. Barron doesn’t think the Kelso decision went far enough. He wants to see private property rights eroded even further. He even wants to see state executives and legislatures challenged and reconfigured in a manner that would allow the government to take property with almost no regard for due process.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has filed a motion for cloture on this nomination. That means he wants to end debate and move to a vote. Because Mr. Reid changed the rules of the Senate, he needs only 51 votes to move forward. There are 53 Democrats in the Senate, plus two independents who caucus with the Democrats.
Many conservatives believe not only is Mr. Barron perhaps the worst judicial nominee Mr. Obama has submitted, they also believe he can be stopped. Some liberal senators are not happy with his role in approving drone strikes against American citizens.
Pressure is being put on red state Democrats, including Sen. Mark Pryor of Arkansas, who is up for re-election, Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Sen. Joe Donnelly of Indiana.
Conservative groups are also putting pressure on Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.
If five Democrat senators defect, the filibuster will kill this nomination.
For Mr. Obama, time is short. He is pushing many of his most radical nominees to be nominated. Mr. Obama realizes that come January, most likely he will face a Republican majority in the Senate as he head into his last two years and at that point, confirmation of his appointments will slow to a crawl.
Mr. Obama generally nominates bad judges. David Barron is worse than bad. He may be the single worst nominee from the Obama regime.
The Senate needs to reject this nominee and tell Mr. Obama to submit someone less radical.
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