Thanks to nuclear option, Senate Dems confirm radical judge

[Draggingtree]

Flopping Aces:

12Dec

 

Thanks to nuclear option, Senate Dems confirm radical judge

 

Matt K. Lewis:

She’s the kind of nominee the Democrats went nuclear for.

 

Cornelia “Nina” Pillard was confirmed by a 51-44 vote in the U.S. Senate in the middle of the night last night, as a judge on the powerful D.C. Circuit court. Prior to the nuclear option, she would have been (justifiably) filibustered and blocked.

 

Her views on a myriad of subjects are clearly outside the mainstream. Consider, for example, Pillard’s thoughts on abortion. This is from 2007: ”Casting reproductive rights in terms of equality holds promise to recenter the debate…away from the deceptive images of fetus-as-autonomous-being that the anti-choice movement has popularized…” (Bold mine.) (page 990)

 

She went on to argue that limiting abortion “reinforces broader patterns of discrimination against women as a class of presumptive breeders…” (p.975) and that abortion rights “play a central role in freeing women from historically routine conscription into maternity.” (p. 945)

 

Perhaps the most alarming thing I’ve read of Pillard’s was called “The Human Right of Sex Equality at the Work-Family Fault Line.” It’s an academic paper, so many of the opinions are couched in jargon and footnotes. But in reading it, it’s very clear that Pillard believes progressives should strategically cast all of their agenda wishes in terms of “rights,” rather than needs.