Monday, May 19, 2008

Question 1: Senator Obama, in an interview with CNN, you cited Justices Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and David Souter as examples of the kinds of justices you would appoint to the high court. In two cases today, your ideal justices split, with Breyer being in the majority and Souter/Ginsburg being in the dissent.

In the first case, two of your ideal justices would have set free a man who to offered to exchange photographs of adult men sexually molesting his 4-year-old daughter for other pictures of child pornography. [Opinion.] In the second case, your ideal justices would have given a career criminal who was illegally using a firearm a much lighter sentence than what the majority determined the law required. Given that both Justices Roberts and Alito, whom you voted against, were in the majority with Justice Breyer, can you tell American whether you would persist in nominating judges like Souter and Ginsburg?

Oh, and in a third case today, Justice Stephen Breyer dissented from a Supreme Court opinion which overturned the 9th Circuit which had set aside the conviction of a terrorist who conspired to detonate explosives at Los Angeles International Airport during the millennium holiday travel period.

During the Alito confirmation hearings you opposed him because you believed he was "contrary to core American values." In other words, he was wrong to punish a child abuser, a convict possessing illegal weapons and a terrorist?

Senator Obama, what values are you talking about?

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