Maranatha said:
U.S. Catholics Urge Senate to End Pro-Abortion Litmus Test
The campaign invites Catholics to send an e-mail or postcard to their senators telling them that support for Roe v. Wade should not be used as a litmus test for judicial nominees.
catholic.org/cathcom/international_story.php?id=13930
Maranatha:
Good catch! let’s see how many posters get the gravity of the situation.
I got this e-mail today from Priests for Life:
The Most Important Vote
Fr. Frank Pavone
National Director, Priests for Life
*Sometime in the next few weeks, the United States Senate will hold the most important vote of this generation. It is that important for the same reason that last year’s election was the most important one of our generation. As an election season billboard said, “Think of the Supreme Court!”
The vote I’m talking about will affect how easily the Senate can put the right men and women onto the Federal Courts, and ultimately the Supreme Court. It is a vote regarding Senate rules, and, simply put, will determine whether nominees who already have the support of a majority of the Senators can be voted on.
You may ask why this is even an issue, especially if the judicial nominees in question already have the support of the majority of the Senate.
Good question.
The United States Constitution says that the President nominates people to serve on our Federal Courts, and that the US Senate is to give “advice and consent.” In other words, the President presents these nominees to the Senate, and then the Senators vote “yes” or “no” as to whether that nominee will serve as a Federal Judge. The same process is used when there is a vacancy on the US Supreme Court, and such a vacancy may occur within the next couple of months.
The President has been nominating people for the Federal courts, and there have been votes and confirmations. But there is an entire group of well-qualified nominees who, in the judgment of Senate Democrats, are too “far right” for their liking.
Of course, these Democrats have the right to think what they want about the nominees, and they have the right to vote against them. They also have the right to try to persuade other Senators to vote against them.
But they are not content with that. They now want to claim the right to prevent a vote one way or the other. And they do that by prolonging debate on the nominee indefinitely, so that the debate never closes and the vote is never taken. This process is called a “filibuster.”
Now filibusters do have their place. There may be legislation, for example, that the minority party objects to. A filibuster can be used to indefinitely prolong debate on the legislation. This gives the minority some leverage, so that they do not lose their power altogether.
But while filibusters have an appropriate place in legislative debates, we are witnessing, for the first time in history, the use of the filibuster technique to block the “advice and consent” process of the Senate for judicial nominees, when the nominees already have the support of the majority of Senators. To the extent that the Senator is deprived of a vote, the people who elected that Senator are deprived of their voice at the highest levels of government. If this can be done now with Federal judges, it will certainly be done with a Supreme Court Justice.
Federal judges have removed “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance, allowed child pornography as protected free speech, redefined marriage to include same-sex relationships, struck down bans on partial-birth abortion, and contradicted the will of the people in many other ways. Many Senators want this to stop, and they can stop it by confirming judges who know the difference between applying the law and imposing their political preferences on the people.
The vote that is coming up in the next few weeks is designed to end the abuse of the filibuster and provide a fair up-or-down vote on judges. This is a unique opportunity to tell your Senators you care about the unpredecented and unfair filibustering of President Bush’s nominees. Senators need to know that you care about this issue and are watching how they vote.*
priestsforlife.org/columns/columns2005/05-04-18mostimportantvote.htm
There’s also a bit on what you can do and I’ll write some in my next post on that, because there is an effort underway to break the filibuster, but 6 Republicans have gotten “Cold Feet” meaning they’ve gotten more worried about their relationships with the Democrats across the isle than doing the right thing for people of faith and conscience.
Blessings and Peace, Michael