Democrats Praise Trump’s Anti-Gun Nominee For 9th Circuit
BY Herschel Smith
6 years, 8 months ago
Reversing the usual script, Democrats praised one of President Trump’s federal appeals court nominees Wednesday while Republicans brought the tough questions for Mark Jeremy Bennett over his defense of gun control laws and free speech rights.
Mr. Bennett, a former Hawaii attorney general now nominated to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, had backed a limited interpretation of Second Amendment rights that was overturned by the Supreme Court.
Sen. Ted Cruz, Texas Republican, also questioned Mr. Bennett over opposition to Citizens United, the Supreme Court case that overturned campaign finance restrictions and helped pave the way for the current system.
“You took positions, taking a very narrow view of what the First Amendment protects,” Mr. Cruz told him during a confirmation hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Usually it’s Democrats who fire the tough questions at Mr. Trump’s judicial picks, but Mr. Bennett won praise from them.
[ … ]
The Alliance for Justice, which has led the fight against Trump judicial nominees, said Mr. Bennett is an exception, and they won’t oppose him.
David Codrea makes the following remarks.
Just being a highly-placed Hawaiian political nominee ought to raise red flags. The state is a “leader” in citizen disarmament. If they ever do have another real catastrophe there, most citizens are going to find out how badly those who have been defrauding them of their birthrights have screwed them.
Add to that the fact that the Ninth Circuit, widely recognized as one of the most “progressive” (read “anti-gun”) courts, recently lost the one sane voice it had on the Second Amendment with the #MeToo-pressured resignation of Judge Alex Kozinski.
Obama gave us Fast & Furious, a number of very bad judges, and a lot of anti-gun rhetoric. In a short tenure thus far Trump has given us a good justice on the Supreme Court, a bump stock ban, and new funding for the CDC to pump out anti-gun propaganda.
Ignoring words and focusing on actions, if the two presidents were in a contest to see who had done the most damage to observation of our gun rights, I’d be hard pressed to pick a winner.
There are some who might claim that being the 3D chess player Trump is, he is baiting the Senate, who didn’t oppose the bump stock ban, and some of whom will face reelection soon, to turn this nominee away and thus burnish their second amendment credentials before the election.
This view suffers from two fatal errors. First, Trump himself will face reelection in the coming several years, and will need the support as badly or worse than the Senators he allegedly is trying to help. Some of the gun owning public will remember this nomination.
Second, there is always the chance (and it may in fact be the highest probability) that the Senate won’t turn this nominee away and we end up with yet another totalitarian at the appeals level.
The contrary view is more likely. This is who Trump is. He is supposedly a supporter of the second amendment because he had enough money to pay lawyers to get him a concealed handgun permit, and because he sat for an interview with Field & Stream where he showed a predilection towards Fudds.
I wish I could say that seldom has the bar been so low for gun owners to lend their support to a candidate. But that would be a lie. The only historic limitation on gun owners whoring themselves out has been the availability of opportunities to do so.
On April 14, 2018 at 2:18 am, Ak said:
Scary thing about Bennett is that he was a Republican appointee by Linda Lingle… Pretty bad when he represents the right in our far leftist state
On April 14, 2018 at 7:27 am, ragman said:
Not a pretty picture at all. I never really believed that Trump was “pro Second”. He was neutral at best, but neutral was far superior to the Hildabeest. It bought us some time, that is about it. We must use it wisely.
On April 14, 2018 at 9:45 am, Ned said:
So Trump is arming the functionaries who thwart his immigration plans. Interesting, eh? Meanwhile, those of us to thick to understand the 3D chess the God Emperor is playing, and who see further degradation of 2nd Amendment and ineffective immigration policy will watch carefully for a candidate to support. Meanwhile, as Ragman pointed out, using the time wisely.
Not to mention Trump apparently tweeting himself into a corner on lobbing missiles at Assad. (Interesting how Assad, and the Russians were defeating Assad’s enemies, and so decided to gas a bunch of citizens and incite the ire of the planet. That’s believable.)
On April 14, 2018 at 9:55 am, Fred said:
Donald “Take the guns first” Trump is the worst 3D chess player ever, or, we’re the object of the game and have been had. The real damage done by Donald “Take the guns first” Trump is the NRA’s bump stock ban. The NRA’s bump stock ban, implemented by Donald “Take the guns first” Trump, method and language will be used to ban all kinds of things by subsequent administrations likely with the approval of the NRA again.
A full suite of parts for your primary weapon(s). And don’t forget to back up the back up. Also one should very likely have spares for 10/22’s and Glocks, and other common rifles and pistols. AR platforms chambered in 5.56 and common handguns chambered in 9mm are a must, even if you don’t like them. Think interoperability and commonality, and availability of ammo with your team but also in a widening circle.
And more ammo, always.
On April 14, 2018 at 1:43 pm, Longbow said:
Donald Woodrow Wilson Trump strikes again.
On April 14, 2018 at 3:43 pm, scott s. said:
My understanding is the seats in the federal circuit are informally reserved for certain states. For Hawaii, Bennett is about as good as you can get unfortunately if you want someone with government experience. I also believe that a state’s US senators have informal “veto” power over nominees so you are kind of at a disadvantage when you have two socialist senators.
On April 14, 2018 at 4:32 pm, Herschel Smith said:
@Scott,
Re: Veto power. My understanding is that they ended the “no slip” objection.
Re: “Informally.” Caring about tradition is irrelevant when it comes to rights. Trump could have nominated my dog if he had wanted to.