{"id":197,"date":"2009-07-13T13:50:36","date_gmt":"2009-07-13T13:50:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/lynnvsekulow\/2009\/07\/good-questions-yes-pontificati.html"},"modified":"2009-07-13T13:50:36","modified_gmt":"2009-07-13T13:50:36","slug":"good-questions-yes-pontificati","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2009\/07\/good-questions-yes-pontificati.html","title":{"rendered":"Good Questions: Yes; Pontifications and Disruptions: No"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jay, of course senators on the Judiciary Committee should ask thoughtful questions about what we often refer to as “judicial philosophy” during the hearings on Judge Sonia Sotomayor.  There is only one problem: some members of the committee have already made it clear they are planning ideological bloviations which will take up valuable time that ought to be spent on serious questions.<\/p>\n

Politico<\/i><\/a> has noted that some Republicans have come out swinging harder than expected.  This didn’t surprise me at all.  Virtually everything Senators Jeff Sessions and John Cornyn have done since Sotomayor was nominated was gripe<\/a> over her “smart Latina” comment (which has absolutely no bearing on her qualifications for anything).  This has allowed space for Senator Orrin Hatch <\/a>to crank up the “left wing groups” mantra to show some “conspiracy” behind the hearings, the latest stunt, of course, invoking claimed efforts to destroy <\/a>anti-Sotomayor witness Frank Ricci (that is, to point out that Ricci had a previous record of claiming discrimination before the claim that lead to the recent Supreme Court decision about his later claim of discrimination).<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Other space has been occupied by Senator Mitch McConnell whose main yapping point<\/a>
\nhas been that there is so much material that the hearings and votes
\nshould be postponed (since we know he’ll be reading every document). <\/p>\n

It’s one thing for these senators to repeatedly make haughty
\ncomments (if they want to waste all of our time, I can’t stop them).
\nBut it’s quite another when we have to listen to shout outs from the
\npeanut gallery. Already today, an anti-abortion activist yelled<\/a>,
\n“Senator, what about the unborn?” when Senator Dianne Feinstein was
\nspeaking. He was quickly silenced and escorted out of the room. <\/p>\n

This confirmation hearing is not a free-for-all. Serious questions
\nneed to be addressed. I just wonder, will anybody ask them?  Why don’t
\nyou let the Senators on your side of this debate know that it is time
\nto quit whining and get serious.  Maybe you’d like to counsel
\nthe ideological advocates against choice that they have plenty of ways
\nto get their ideas across short of screaming during the hearings.  <\/p>\n

To subscribe to “Lynn v. Sekulow” click <\/font>here<\/font><\/a>.<\/font><\/span><\/span><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jay, of course senators on the Judiciary Committee should ask thoughtful questions about what we often refer to as “judicial philosophy” during the hearings on Judge Sonia Sotomayor.  There is only one problem: some members of the committee have already made it clear they are planning ideological bloviations which will take up valuable time that ought to be…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":164,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,8,69],"tags":[384,207,204,205,208,51,206,67,202,157,203],"class_list":["post-197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-abortion","category-congress","category-supreme-court","tag-abortion","tag-diane-feinstein","tag-jeff-sessions","tag-john-cornyn","tag-mitch-mcconnell","tag-news","tag-orrin-hatch","tag-politics","tag-senate-confirmation-hearings","tag-sonia-sotomayor","tag-the-supreme-court"],"yoast_head":"\nGood Questions: Yes; Pontifications and Disruptions: No - Lynn v. Sekulow<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2009\/07\/good-questions-yes-pontificati.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Good Questions: Yes; Pontifications and Disruptions: No - Lynn v. Sekulow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Jay, of course senators on the Judiciary Committee should ask thoughtful questions about what we often refer to as “judicial philosophy” during the hearings on Judge Sonia Sotomayor.  There is only one problem: some members of the committee have already made it clear they are planning ideological bloviations which will take up valuable time that ought to be…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2009\/07\/good-questions-yes-pontificati.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lynn v. Sekulow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-07-13T13:50:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rev. Barry W. Lynn\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Good Questions: Yes; Pontifications and Disruptions: No - Lynn v. Sekulow","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2009\/07\/good-questions-yes-pontificati.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Good Questions: Yes; Pontifications and Disruptions: No - Lynn v. Sekulow","og_description":"Jay, of course senators on the Judiciary Committee should ask thoughtful questions about what we often refer to as “judicial philosophy” during the hearings on Judge Sonia Sotomayor.  There is only one problem: some members of the committee have already made it clear they are planning ideological bloviations which will take up valuable time that ought to be…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2009\/07\/good-questions-yes-pontificati.html","og_site_name":"Lynn v. Sekulow","article_published_time":"2009-07-13T13:50:36+00:00","author":"Rev. Barry W. Lynn","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2009\/07\/good-questions-yes-pontificati.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2009\/07\/good-questions-yes-pontificati.html","name":"Good Questions: Yes; Pontifications and Disruptions: No - Lynn v. Sekulow","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-07-13T13:50:36+00:00","dateModified":"2009-07-13T13:50:36+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/#\/schema\/person\/98ebaf547801cce8ce6fff4c27f51fc8"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2009\/07\/good-questions-yes-pontificati.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2009\/07\/good-questions-yes-pontificati.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2009\/07\/good-questions-yes-pontificati.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Good Questions: Yes; Pontifications and Disruptions: No"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/","name":"Lynn v. Sekulow","description":"A debate blog about church, state, faith and politics with Jay Sekulow and Barry W. Lynn","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/#\/schema\/person\/98ebaf547801cce8ce6fff4c27f51fc8","name":"Rev. Barry W. Lynn","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/32b\/32b0f12cad840c65bff61ad01e2664aax96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/32b\/32b0f12cad840c65bff61ad01e2664aax96.jpg","caption":"Rev. Barry W. Lynn"},"description":"Since 1992, the Rev. Barry W. Lynn has served as executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a Washington, D.C.-based organization dedicated to the preservation of the Constitution's religious liberty provisions (www.au.org). In addition to his work as a long-time activist and lawyer in the civil liberties field, Lynn is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, offering him a unique perspective on church-state issues. An accomplished speaker and lecturer, Lynn has appeared frequently on television and radio broadcasts to offer analysis of First Amendment issues. News programs on which Lynn has appeared include PBS's \"NewsHour,\" NBC's \"Today Show,\" Fox News Channel's \"O'Reilly Factor,\" ABC's \"Nightline,\" CNN's \"Crossfire,\" CBS's \"60 Minutes,\" MSNBC's \"Countdown with Keith Olbermann,\" Fox News Channel's \"Hannity & Colmes,\" ABC's \"Good Morning America,\" CNN's \"Larry King Live\" and the national nightly news on NBC, ABC and CBS. On the radio, Lynn serves as host of \"Culture Shocks,\" a daily look at various issues affecting society and the culture. In the 1990s he served for two years as regular co-host of \"Pat Buchanan and Company\" and after that did a weekly syndicated radio program, \"Review of the News,\" with Col. Oliver North. Lynn is a regular guest on nationally broadcast radio programs, including National Public Radio's \"All Things Considered,\" \"Morning Edition\" and \"Talk of the Nation,\" as well as having appeared on national networks such as CBS Radio, CNN Radio, ABC Radio and AP Radio. Lynn began his professional career working at the national office of the United Church of Christ, including a two-year stint as legislative counsel for the Church's Office of Church in Society in Washington, D.C. From 1984 to 1991 he was legislative counsel for the Washington office of the American Civil Liberties Union. In 2006, Lynn authored Piety & Politics: The Right-Wing Assault On Religious Freedom (Harmony Books). In 2008 he coauthored (with C. Welton Gaddy) First Freedom First: A Citizen's Guide to Protecting Religious Liberty and the Separation of Church and State (Beacon Press). Lynn writes frequently on religious liberty issues, and has had essays published in outlets such as USA Today, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Nation. Lynn also has op-eds published frequently by the McClatchy and Scripps-Howard newspaper chains. A member of the Washington, D.C. and U.S. Supreme Court bar, Lynn earned his law degree from Georgetown University Law Center in 1978. In addition, he received his theology degree from Boston University School of Theology in 1973. Lynn, who was born in Harrisburg, Pa., and raised in Bethlehem, Pa., lives in Chevy Chase, Md., with his family.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/author\/blynn"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/164"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}