Judicial

Late last year, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney proclaimed, “I favor gay rights.” Apparently Gov. Romney thinks he can simultaneously say he favors gay rights while also opposing any form of relationship recognition for same-sex couples and supporting an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that bans marriage equality. He also opposes a federal law that would finally make it illegal in all 50 states to discriminate against gay and transgender workers.
 
With respect to marriage equality, civil unions, and workplace fairness, it is safe to say that Mitt Romney does not actually “favor gay rights.”

The rest of the country followed Delaware’s lead in ratifying the Constitution. Congress, too, should take its cue from Delaware for its leadership in passing legislation addressing anonymous spending in elections.

On August 15, the first of perhaps a million or more people who qualify for the DREAM Act will begin stepping forward to apply and pay fees for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), a form of temporary deportation relief for undocumented immigrants who meet certain criteria. Each case will be evaluated individually, but I am encouraging those who meet the basic criteria to consider applying for DACA or at least get all the information they can about whether it is the right thing for them. Thousands will join me and Senator Dick Durbin, the author of the DREAM Act, and Mayor Rahm Emanuel in Chicago at the Navy Pier for a workshop on the new program conducted by the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights and numerous local groups.

In June, the Senate GOP leadership proclaimed that it would invoke the “Thurmond Rule” and oppose appointment of each appeals court nominee recommended by President Barack Obama until after the November election. This decision threatens the confirmation of William Kayatta, the excellent, noncontroversial nominee whom Obama selected after First Circuit Judge Kermit Lipez took senior status in late 2011. Because Mr. Kayatta is a strong consensus nominee, he does not satisfy the Thurmond Rule and GOP senators must expeditiously allow a floor vote. Should the Republican leaders refuse to vote, Maine GOP Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins must join other senators in favoring cloture, so that Kayatta secures a merits vote.

Conservative activists in California are promoting a deceptive ballot proposition that would increase the ability of business groups and billionaires to dominate state elections. The measure, Proposition 32, claims to be an even-handed effort at campaign finance reform – but nothing could be further from the truth. Prop. 32 (or “Stop Special Interest Money Now,” as its big money supporters prefer to call it) would cripple the ability of unions to participate in politics, but have little or no impact on unlimited spending by corporate executives and other wealthy individuals.

Many questions have been rightly raised about what the LIBOR scandal will mean for the United States economy. It may take months to arrive at an answer but regulators must fully examine the LIBOR manipulation controversy in order to prevent it from happening again.

The proposed antitrust whistleblower legislation introduced last week by Senators Leahy (D-Vt.) and Grassley (R-Iowa) is certainly a step in the right direction. It would for the first time provide protections for employees reporting to the government or within their company antitrust violations in which their company is actually or potentially engaging. Up until now, the government has largely relied on the antitrust wrongdoers themselves to self-report their criminal conduct through the government's corporate leniency program. The draft legislation follows the recommendations the Government Accountability Office (GAO) made in a report it released last summer. After studying the state of criminal antitrust enforcement, the GAO concluded that bringing whistleblowers into the enforcement mix would be an important supplement to the leniency program.

President Obama’s reckless amnesty agenda has proved to be both dangerous and deadly for the American people. The House Judiciary Committee this week released a report finding that thousands of illegal and criminal immigrants not detained or deported by federal authorities have gone on to commit more crimes, including murder, rape, kidnapping, and child molestation. 

As part of the committee’s oversight responsibility, a subpoena was issued to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) last November for a list of illegal and criminal immigrants who have been brought to the agency’s attention through the Secure Communities program but who have not been detained or deported by the agency. 

Secure Communities is designed to keep our neighborhoods safe by identifying illegal and criminal immigrants in police custody who have been arrested and fingerprinted. Rather than protect the American people he was elected to serve, President Obama has not enforced this commonsense public safety program. 

This month, Eleventh Circuit Judge J. L. Edmondson assumes senior status after a quarter century of valuable service. His decision leaves the bench with 13 vacancies in the 179 appeals court judgeships and the Eleventh Circuit with two in twelve. These openings, which comprise more than seven percent of the judgeships nationwide and 17 percent in the Eleventh Circuit erode the delivery of justice. Therefore, President Barack Obama must swiftly nominate, and the Senate promptly confirm, appellate judges, so that the vacancies will be filled systemwide and in the Eleventh Circuit.

I’ve been a small business owner for more than 25 years. So it’s fair to say I’ve been around the block. I also happen to live in the Chicago metro area, so I know a thing or two about hard-nosed politics.