Senate Should Confirm DOJ Nominee Johnsen, Los Angeles Times Editorial States

Main Category: Abortion
Also Included In: Litigation / Medical Malpractice
Article Date: 29 Jan 2010 - 4:00 PDT

email to a friend   printer friendly   opinions  

Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee should abandon efforts to block the confirmation of Dawn Johnsen as the head of the Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel, and the full Senate should confirm her, a Los Angeles Times editorial states (Los Angeles Times, 1/28). The committee approved the nomination on a party-line vote in March 2009, but President Obama was forced to resubmit Johnsen's nomination after the full Senate failed to take up the nomination by the end of last year. The committee is scheduled to reconsider her nomination Thursday ( Women's Health Policy Report, 1/26).

Johnsen is "well-qualified" to head OLC, which gives legal advice to the executive branch, the editorial says. "With the announcement by Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.), once a critic of Johnsen, that he will support her, the logjam over the nomination seems about to break and a successful filibuster seems unlikely," according to the editorial. However, "Republicans on the panel haven't given up" and are now threatening to delay the second committee vote, it adds. "Citing 'several incidents affecting our national security,'... they're raising questions about 'her dedication to aggressive executive action in national security matters,'" according to the Times.

The editorial notes that opposition to Johnsen "isn't completely, or even primarily, about national security." Antiabortion-rights groups also oppose her nomination because of her work for NARAL Pro-Choice America from 1988 to 1993. According to the editorial, "whether rooted in nostalgia for Bush terrorism policies or antipathy to her abortion-rights stance, the obstruction of this nomination is and always has been unjustified." It concludes, "The committee should promptly send it to the floor" (Los Angeles Times, 1/28).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.nationalpartnership.org. You can view the entire Daily Women's Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery here. The Daily Women's Health Policy Report is a free service of the National Partnership for Women & Families, published by The Advisory Board Company.

© 2010 The Advisory Board Company. All rights reserved.

• Additional
• References
• Citations