Here’s a Little Information About President Trump’s Supreme Court Pick

February 2, 2017 | Posted in Current Events | By

This week President Trump nominated Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Neil Gorsuch to fill Justice Antonin Scalia’s vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court.

Here is a little about Judge Gorsuch and some noteworthy opinions he has issued:

  • He is a graduate of Harvard Law School.
  • He holds a Doctor of Philosophy in Law from Oxford University.
  • He clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justices Byron White and Anthony Kennedy.
    • Justice White is noteworthy for dissenting in the Roe v. Wade abortion decision that legalized abortion nationwide. Justice Kennedy is noteworthy for writing the Planned Parenthood v. Casey abortion decision and the 2015 Obergefell decision legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide.
    • This matters, because some people believe looking at who an attorney clerked for after law school is one way to gauge his or her judicial philosophy.
  • President George W. Bush nominated him to the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals in 2006.  He was confirmed on a voice vote by the U.S. Senate, because his nomination was not deemed controversial.
  • As a federal judge, Neil Gorsuch has issued opinions in favor of religious liberty in lawsuits like the Hobby Lobby case.
  • In 2007 he wrote a dissenting opinion in the Pleasant Grove City v. Summum case. In it he argued it was constitutional for a city to display a donated monument of the Ten Commandments on public property without displaying other monuments. Ultimately, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed.
  • In 2009 he authored the book The Future of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia, in  which he analyzed the arguments in favor of euthanasia and assisted suicide, but ultimately provided strong arguments against these practices.

Court Strikes Bad Casino, Tort Proposals From Ballot

October 13, 2016 | Posted in Casinos, Current Events | By

my_trusty_gavelThe following press release is from Family Council Action Committee.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, October 13, 2016

On Thursday the Arkansas Supreme Court disqualified ballot proposals, Issue 4 dealing with limits on damages in medical injury lawsuits and Issue 5, which opens three casinos in Arkansas, from the November ballot.

Family Council Action Committee Executive Director Jerry Cox released a statement, saying, “In my opinion, both of these measures were seriously flawed and needed to be removed from the ballot. While I support general medical malpractice reforms for doctors, Issue 4 could have made it possible for some nursing homes to neglect residents without facing sufficient consequences. Issue 5 would have brought casinos to three counties in Arkansas, and it would have written a specific corporation from Missouri into our state’s constitution. I am glad to see the Arkansas Supreme Court has disqualified these proposals.”

Cox said he also believes the court should have ruled against the two marijuana ballot proposals as well in order to be consistent with this ruling. “The Arkansas Supreme Court disqualified Issues 4 and 5 in part because they failed to define some of their key terms in the proposals. Marijuana Issues 6 and 7 fail to define some of their key terms as well, but the court left those proposals on the ballot. The court was right to disqualify Issues 4 and 5, but by the same standard, the court should have disqualified the two marijuana measures as well.”

Family Council Action Committee is a conservative 501(c)(4) organization based in Little Rock, Arkansas.

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Photo Credit: By Brian Turner (Flickr: My Trusty Gavel) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Family Council, Gov. Hutchinson, Sen. Russ Host Event in Conway

September 23, 2016 | Posted in Current Events | By

Last night Family Council teamed up with Governor Asa Hutchinson and former state Senator Stanley Russ  in Conway to discuss, among other things, the importance of families and public policies related to families in Arkansas.

Below are a few pictures from the event.