Barry Sheets
Legislative Consultant
It will be time to roll the clocks back soon, as day gives way to
more hours of darkness in the winter. It is also time to make sure
the nation’s political clock doesn’t get rolled back into the darkness
of more abortion and more socialism, by Voting a Pro-Life Ballot
in this general Election.
If you haven’t already done so, please make plans to visit your county
board of elections and cast a live early ballot (I did, it’s easy) or
if circumstances keep you from making that important trip,
get your absentee ballot request in now,
so there will be time to fill it out and return it
so your vote is counted.
NEWS AND VIEWS
1. The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee voted on a party line vote of 12-0 (the Democrat members of the committee failing in a “boycott” to keep the vote from occurring) to advance the nomination of Fourth Circuit Judge
Amy Coney Barrett to the full Senate to become the next Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (USCC). Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has promised a full Senate vote for Monday to confirm Barrett to the Supreme Court, but Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is trying to float a motion to adjourn the Senate until after the November 3rd general election. Even with leftist pro-abort Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski (R) announcing voting against the confirmation, Senator McConnell should have the votes to ensure President Trump’s third USSC Justice this term, an accomplishment that will see the Court’s majority shift to a decidedly pro-life, Constitutional originalist philosophy. Please pray hard
this will be accomplished, and that the vote will happen on Monday!
2. Speaking of the President’s judicial appointments, this last week saw a Kentucky law requiring transfer agreements with hospitals for abortion providers (a law similar to the one we have in Ohio) be upheld by a three judge panel of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals (our circuit) on a 2-1 vote. Previously, the trial court had ruled against the law as an “undue burden” on women. The Sixth Circuit panel disagreed, and reminded the lower court that an abortion provider must try a good faith effort at following the law before trying to overturn it! The two judges upholding these pro-life protections? Judges Joan Larsen and Chad Readler, both nominees of President Trump.
3. Pro-Life is not the only issue seeing more success: so is the fight to protect women and girls from the transgender delusion. Late last week, the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights (OCR) announced a settlement
in the complaint by the conservative group Concerned Women for America against Franklin Pierce University in New Hampshire, whose policy allowed “female-identifying” men to compete against real females (biologically speaking) in sports at the school. The University capitulated: “The Resolution Agreement requires the University to rescind the Policy, cease any and all practices related thereto, and comply with 34 C.F.R. § 106.41 with respect to its intercollegiate athletics program. OCR will monitor the University’s implementation of the Agreement." President Trump’s Department of Education interprets the Title IX policies as being for the benefit of women and girls to compete equally with men, not for “female identifying” men to compete as women! That is a major change from the Obama-Biden administration’s interpretation that saw Title IX protections in exactly the opposite way, opening the door for the transgender delusion to descend upon our schools.
4. Even more good news from the courts: Churches in Colorado have been given a reprieve from Governor Jared Polis’ executive order requiring churches to limit indoor occupancy and require mask wearing during worship. U.S. District Court Judge Daniel Domenico (yes, once again, a judge nominated to this court by President Trump) ruled that churches were being singled out, treated differently than secular counterparts, and being denied
their First Amendment rights by Governor Polis’ COVID restrictions, which didn’t apply to Walmart or marijuana dispensaries in Colorado. Judge Domenico hits
the nail squarely on the head “The First Amendment does not allow government officials, whether in the executive or judicial branch, to treat religious worship
as any less critical or essential than other human endeavors. Nor does it allow
the government to determine what is a necessary part of a house of worship’s religious exercise.” The two evangelical churches were represented by the
Thomas More Society.
5. “Well, there you go again!” is the famous catch phrase former President Ronald Reagan used in his Presidential debate to indicate his opponent
was lying about a fact or issue. There’s also the chestnut about the three
types of falsehoods: “lies, (deleted) lies, and statistics”. Planned Parenthood
and their polling fellow-travelers (ABC News and the Washington Post) need to be called out ala Reagan, as they just released the results of a poll they claim shows “62% of registered voters say the U.S. Supreme Court should uphold Roe v. Wade as the basis of abortion law in the United States.” The poll is worded in such a way to keep respondents from having sufficient response options to actually express their views on the question. It’s an old polling trick to “flavor” the results of your poll to benefit your pre-established outcome goal. Not quite push polling, but garbage nonetheless.
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 Sara Lioi
—Judge Lioi, an Ohio native born in Canton, earned an undergraduate degree from Bowling Green State University in 1983 and a Juris Doctor from the Ohio State University College of Law in 1987. She spent the next ten years in private practice before being appointed to the Stark County Court of Common Pleas by former Governor George Voinovich in 1997, where she was twice elected to four year terms. Judge Lioi was then nominated by former President George W. Bush
to a vacancy in the Northern District federal court on the recommendation of then Senators George Voinovich and Mike DeWine in 1997; she was confirmed in March of that year.
Judge Lioi is most widely known for presiding over the corruption and bribery trial of former Cuyahoga County Commissioner and political boss Jimmy Dimora, in which she sentenced the disgraced politico to 28 years in federal prison. Lioi’s sentencing was upheld on appeal through the Sixth Circuit, and the U.S. Supreme Court declined Dimora’s attorneys’ request for appeal. However, Judge Lioi has been ordered by a Sixth Circuit panel earlier this fall to re-assess aspects of the case, specifically errors in jury instruction and the exclusion of an ethics report
on Dimora that the jurors never were presented with.
You can read more about Judge Lioi’s background here.
NOTE: Food for thought—In case some might be wondering about Pro-Life accomplishments during the first term of President Donald Trump, this article
by Dr. Susan Berry summarizes the Pro-Life successes of our 45th President.
Read, enjoy, share, and VOTE!
