Barry Sheets
Legislative Consultant
80 years ago today, during the Battle of Britain in WW2, St. Paul’s Cathedral was continuously bombed by the German Luftwaffe, suffering major damage. This is symbolic of the attacks facing Christianity today by the atheistic left. Just as the cathedral survived the attack and became stronger, while its attacker has been relegated to the dustbin of history, so will the faith overcome the schemes of evil.
Persevero!
NEWS AND VIEWS
1. Joe Biden’s campaign is planning on spending millions of dollars this month to try to convince Christians, specifically Catholics and evangelicals, to vote for the Biden-Harris slate as the “clear moral choice” in the presidential election. Huh? Since Biden considers that “he IS the Democrat Party”, perhaps he can explain the moral choice that the party made by telling pro-life Democrats that they have “no place” in the party, and that all Democrats must support a woman’s “right to choose” to kill her unborn baby!
2. Next week ushers in the opening (as of this writing, that is the announced plan) of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on the nomination and confirmation of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the United States Supreme Court. However, a number of Democrats are trying to use the recent diagnosis
of President Trump who contracted the COVID-19 virus as an excuse not to go forward with the hearings. They have a couple of problems though: 1. Trump
beat COVID in what seems to be near-record time with proper care, and 2. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) wants this nomination finalized before Election Day (which, coincidentally, he is in a tough re-election fight in Kentucky).
3. Since the nomination hearings will go forward, the left and its media servants are doing everything they can to try to quail supporters of Judge Barrett (and by extension, supporters of President Trump) by trying to frame the Judge’s positions as being ones that will continue to uphold the Roe precedent. While the writer of the article does make a fair point (one that I have made over and over again) that the mainstream of the Republican party has no serious intent to end the spectre of abortion, I think they miss one vitally important caveat: Donald Trump is most certainly NOT in the mainstream of the Republican party and has shown time and again that he is working to support life and bring the court back around to an originalist majority.
4. Pro-life activists aren’t the only ones who are feeling a major shift in jurisprudence will be upon us when President Trump is successful in navigating three justices to the nation’s highest court. Two of the sitting members of the Supreme Court, Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, feel that the pending addition of a fifth conservative to the court indicates a need to revisit other poorly-decided cases, such as the Obergefell case which “legalized” same-sex marriage. We can’t agree more: taking down the unholy triumvirate of Roe, Casey and Obergefell with a constitutionalist Court majority is absolutely within reason and within grasp!
5. Perhaps someone was reading last week’s Friday Five, when I mentioned wanting to have some legislators like Viktor Orban. I present to your consideration Representatives Reggie Stoltzfus (R-Minerva) and Don Jones (R-Freeport) who this week have communicated their concern over Kent State University (KSU) assigning graphic sexually violent adult materials in a class taken by a 17 year old high school student under the College Credit Plus program. The two lawmakers want KSU to use more discretion and common sense before assigning such materials to underage students. KSU has rebuffed both the legislators and the parents of the student, wrapping their poor choice in the flag
of “academic freedom”. They also cite an acknowledgment form that materials may have “mature adult themes”. Yeah, right. Graphic sexual violence against women is nowhere near a “mature” or “adult” theme: it’s pornography, and has
no place in a freshman writing course. Perhaps KSU forgets that Rep. Jones is chairman of the Primary and Secondary Education Committee, and that both Representatives will have input into the next budget, from which KSU will likely be requesting more money in order to keep these classes and materials in front
of young students.
PROFILE
Each installment of the Friday Five will bring thumbnail profiles
of key policymakers and committees.
United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio—Judge Dan Aaron Polster—Judge Polster, another appointee of former President Clinton, was nominated in 1997 for the seat on the Northern District Court, and was confirmed and seated on August 10, 1998. Polster, a native of Cleveland who served as a trial attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice from 1976-1982 in
the antitrust division in Cleveland. He was named an assistant U.S. Attorney for the Northern District (Economic Crimes Division) in 1982 until his elevation to the District Court bench in 1998. Polster received his Juris Doctor in 1976 from the Harvard School of Law, and previously obtained his A.B. from Harvard College in 1972.
Judge Polster is best known for being appointed to preside over the multi-district litigation undertaken against the prescription opioid manufacturers, and being roundly criticized for his handling of the suits. In 2019, the Sixth Circuit overruled Judge Polster on blocking the release of court records in the case.
There is more regarding Judge Polster’s background and judicial philosophy here.
