Latest In

News

Ogden Headed for Confirmation Despite Right’s Fears of Porn and Abortion « The Washington Independent

Jul 31, 2020627 Shares125.4K Views
David Ogden is expected to be confirmedas deputy attorney general today, despite Republican objections that he supports abortion and pornography. ****
As Phyllis Schafly’s Eagle Forumput it, the nominee should be rejected because “Ogden has built his career by advancing abortion, denying its harm, protecting pornographers while removing protections from children, and he believes that the U.S. Constitution should be interpreted in light of international law and U.N. statements.”
Ogden signed on to various amicus briefs in abortion rights cases, and represented clients such as Playboy Enterprises in First Amendment cases while in private practice.
Well, if the right is so concerned about the legal positions Ogden has taken defending clients as a partner in a private law firm, where were the conservatives when Attorney General Eric Holder was nominated, and the left complained about his previous defense of wealthy corporations accused of fraud, discrimination, and funding terrorism?
As I wroteduring his nomination battle, Holder represented banana giant Chiquita Brands International against charges that the company paid millions of dollars to a right-wing Colombian paramilitary group that has killed thousands of civilians. Although some on the left were a little disgusted by that, the right was mostly obsessed with Holder’s role in the Marc Rich pardon when he was a deputy attorney general during the Clinton administration.
And as Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) noted in a statement yesterday:
“As recently as just over one year ago, every Senate Republican voted to confirm Michael Mukasey to be Attorney General of the United States. That showed no concern that one of his clients, and one of his most significant cases in private practice as identified in the bipartisan Committee questionnaire he filed, was his presentation of Carlin Communications, a company that specialized in what are sometimes called “dial-a-porn” services. It is more evidence of a double standard.”
It sure is.
Here’s the restof Leahy’s statement, in which he calls Ogden “a good lawyer and a good man” and denies that he is “a pedophile and a pornographer.”
Hajra Shannon

Hajra Shannon

Reviewer
Latest Articles
Popular Articles