At the Federalist Society Convention today Sessions said:
"... Hamilton's record, I think, is troubling, as I've just indicated. He worked for ACORN, was a litigation director for the Indiana ACLU. He has endorsed the notion that a judge's job is to, quote, 'write footnotes to the Constitution.' I'm not sure -- if they had a convention that he could participate in, maybe he could write some of the Constitution ... And why did I mention Hamilton? Because Judge Hamilton was President Obama's symbolic first pick to the federal bench. And one White House official said that that nomination would, quote, 'set the tone for the future.'"
Needless to say, Sessions doesn't think the tone set by United States District Court Judge David Hamilton's nomination to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals is good.
Sorry, Senator, but Hamilton has a record that shows him to be a highly qualified nominee who will uphold the Constitution and the law to provide equal justice for all. Judge Hamilton has the backing of both his home state senators, Republican Richard Lugar and Democrat Evan Bayh. Moreover, the American Bar Association gave him its highest rating of well-qualified. And, we would be remiss if we didn't note that local conservatives who actually know him think he's a stellar choice. Geoffrey Slaughter, President of the Indianapolis chapter of the Federalist Society, praised Hamilton's nomination observing, "I regard Judge Hamilton as an excellent jurist with a first rate intellect . . . His judicial philosophy is well within the mainstream." It doesn't get much better than that.
The obstruction of the Obama administration's judicial nominees by Senator Sessions and others on specious charges like those leveled today is why there are 96 vacant seats on the federal courts. It appears that Judge Hamilton's nomination will finally go to the Senate floor for a vote next week. It's long past time for the Senate to vote on these nominees.
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