Barry Sheets
Legislative Consultant
Looking over the news this week reminds me of the opening to William Butler Yeats’ poem The Second Coming: “Turning and turning in the widening gyre - The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart;
the center cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The
blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere the ceremony of innocence
is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.”
It is time the best find that conviction, and have the passionate intensity
to boldly stand for the truth!
NEWS AND VIEWS
1. The federal court system currently seems to be the abortionist’s best friend. Just this week, Judge Bernard Friedman of the Federal District Court for Middle Tennessee struck down a Tennessee law requiring a 48 hour waiting period before a woman can have her unborn child killed by an abortionist. Friedman, who was nominated by late President Ronald Reagan, stereotyped it this way “almost all women are quite certain of their decision by the time they appear for their first appointment” Really? Then waiting 48 hours shouldn’t cause a lack of business, right? This “judge” goes on: “...the mandatory waiting period does nothing to increase the decisional certainty among women contemplating an abortion.” News flash,
Judge Friedman, the waiting period is actually to make sure that women have the chance to reflect (and hopefully have factual information presented as we do in Ohio), not making this decision on a whim, spur of the moment, or out of fear or threat.
Of course, this is the same judge that let Planned Parenthood continue to operate in Tennessee while other health care was postponed under a Covid “elective procedure” ban.
the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals who had enjoined South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster’s executive order denying abortion provider Planned Parenthood from receiving reimbursement under the state’s Medicaid program. Governor McMaster has vowed to continue the fight through the courts in order to keep taxpayers in the Palmetto state from funding the killing of unborn children. The
USSC denied the petition to the case with a two-word “Petition denied” entry.
This came from the Supreme Court justice who has the assignment to oversee cases coming out of the 4th Circuit. Three guesses as to who that justice is? That’s right: Chief Justice John Roberts.
3. A group of liberal prosecuting attorneys issued a joint statement this week vowing to NOT uphold any laws that would restrict abortion. Basically signing a document that has them violating their oaths of office, these 64 signed the Fair and Just Prosecution’s project to defend the indefensible: the willful taking of a defenseless, judicially innocent unborn human being’s life. Columbus city attorney Zach Klein is among the signatories. Sounds like it’s time to remove him from office
if he doesn’t want to do the job. Their concern is that these laws are “ambiguous or silent as to whom they would hold criminally responsible”. The solution? Pass the
Life at Conception Act/HB413, which clearly and unambiguously holds responsible the abortion provider for murdering the unborn child.
4. Acting and performing can be a worthwhile pursuit. Not so much if the actor or performer starts believing that their fantasy world should be reality. That is the case with more and more of the Hollywood “elite” who fashion themselves to be overly important. Fading actress Patricia Arquette (bet you can’t name a single movie she’s been in) has decided that she knows (did she go door to door to every suburban home?) that “suburban women want their daughters to have the right to access a safe abortion” and used social media to make the claim. Gee, and here I thought that those women (along with city and rural women) might want their daughters to be safe and secure, get a good education, be happy and find fulfillment. That gets so much harder if there is promiscuity and pregnancies, but Arquette thinks that killing an unborn baby is their main concern for their daughters. She’s not alone: rocker Stevie Nicks is now claiming there wouldn’t have been a Fleetwood Mac band (although the band was formed years before she joined it) if she had not aborted her unborn child conceived with rocker Don Henley, and that the “music we were going to bring to the world” took priority over the life of an unborn baby. You just can’t make up this form of delusional self-aggrandizement.
5. The Bishop of San Diego gave an address this last week “Voting as an Authentic Disciple” that decried the idea of denying “candidate’s identity as Catholics because of a specific policy position they have taken” and that voting “cannot be reduced to a logical set of propositions that yield a pre-determined result in the selection of candidates.” If this is followed, then Joe Biden, who supports abortion and recently said that 8 year old children should have the right to decide upon transgender surgery on their bodies, is supposedly a legitimate choice to vote for. With all due respect, that’s asking faithful Christians to vote for someone who has embraced an intrinsic evil, which can never be a legitimate voting option.
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 John R. Adams—-Judge Adams, born in Orrville, Ohio in 1955, was a former county Common Pleas Judge and assistant prosecutor, who was appointed to the Northern District bench in 2003 after being nominated by former President George W. Bush. Judge Adams received his Bachelor of Science degree from Bowling Green State University in 1978 and his Juris Doctor from the University of Akron School of Law in 1983. He served in private practice from 1983 until 1999. In that time, he also was an assistant prosecutor for Summit County from 1986-1989. In 1999, he won a seat on the Summit County Court of Common Pleas, where he served until his appointment to the federal district bench.
Adams has faced a series of reprimands from the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals for rulings and actions that have been problematic. Two judicial conduct panels have found Judge Adams committed misconduct when he issued an order in 2013 to a magistrate judge who missed a deadline to submit a report and recommendation in a Social Security case. Both reports also referenced other examples of problematic behavior, from being unwilling to engage with his colleagues on the bench, to being hostile toward magistrate judges. The Cleveland Plain Dealer has an article detailing some of the issues here. However, Judicial Watch actually sued the Circuit’s Judicial Council on behalf of Judge Adams.
