WaxWorks
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Wednesday, April 02, 2003
Remember during the 2000 campaign how Bush made everybody think he was a moderate, only to govern to the right of Reagan? Well, apparently that's the strategy of Bush's judicial nominees as well -- and not just people like Estrada. Here's a revealing New York Times article about the confirmation hearings for Judge Carolyn Kuhl, Bush nominee for the Ninth Circuit. She tries to distance herself from some of her past right-wing actions, but with little success.
First:
Judge Kuhl told the committee that she was wrong to have argued vigorously as a lawyer in the Reagan Justice Department that the administration reverse a longstanding policy and provide tax-exempt status to Bob Jones University, despite its racial discrimination. She said that she was a young lawyer at the time and did not realize that it was the obligation of the Justice Department to defend rulings like the one made by the Internal Revenue Service on the tax-exempt status of Bob Jones University.
Then this:
Judge Kuhl was asked about a memoir by Charles Fried, the Reagan administration's solicitor general and her boss, that describes her as one of the two most vigorous advocates for using a 1986 Supreme Court case to urge the justices to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that first found a constitutional right to abortion. She said she had been trying to put into practice President Reagan's stance against the Roe decision.
Judge Kuhl, who has been nominated to the federal appeals court based in California, pre-empted questions about her views on well-known cases by saying, "as a judge, I don't have personal views about cases anymore."
And, finally, this:
She was also questioned closely about a case that involved a doctor who was treating a woman for breast cancer and invited a drug company salesman to observe his examination of the woman's breasts and abdomen. The doctor told the woman the man was helping him in his medical practice. The woman described the doctor and the salesman as laughing at her when she needed to use a fan to control her flushing.
When the woman discovered the observer was a salesman, she sued under the state's privacy law. Judge Kuhl dismissed the suit against the salesman, saying that his presence "was not highly offensive as a matter of law" and the patient did not have a reasonable expectation of privacy. A three-judge appeals court reversed, saying that the conduct was "highly offensive" and clearly violated the California law....
Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, said her ruling defied common sense and would outrage 99 out of 100 women.
Apparently, Judge Kuhl is the 100th woman who wouldn't be outraged.
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