Judge Louis Butler: Another Unfit Obama Nominee

Another radical, anti-gun judge, Louis Butler, has been nominated for the federal judiciary. Sadly, he has been approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Butler is simply the latest of several admitted leftist and activist judges handpicked by Obama for coveted lifetime posts. He is so radical that he was twice rejected by the people of Wisconsin (which is, by the way, one of the most liberal states in our union).

Butler opposes the rights of gun owners. The right to bear arms in the Wisconsin Constitution expressly notes that this right is for personal security and "any other lawful purpose." But in State v. Fischer, Judge Butler was the deciding vote in 2006 to hold that a Wisconsin statute barring carrying a concealed weapon for any purpose, at any time, including in a vehicle, does not violate this right to personal security that the voters of Wisconsin chose to expressly protect in their state constitution. So he ignored the state constitution in order to impose his anti-gun views on the people of Wisconsin.

Following the 2008 US Supreme Court Heller decision on the Second Amendment, Butler said,

Gun control may ultimately be decided, and the new appointees can tip the very balance of the court. [The] background, personal beliefs and policy decisions of the justices selected will influence how they will vote on the difficult cases before them.

Butler clearly is a radical activist who wants to move the courts and our country in a new direction -- further away from the Constitution.

The authors of the US Constitution wisely provided for Senate confirmation of all presidential nominees. The purpose of this process is to protect the US Constitution and the liberties it guarantees from an activist and power-hungry administration and from activist judges such as Louis Butler. Therefore, Senators must make all decisions regarding presidential appointees based not only on the nominee's professional qualifications but more importantly on his/her respect for the Constitution and not on whether he/she is politically correct (politically cleansed).

On taking office, every Senator takes the following oath:

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.

Senators do not take an oath to any political ideology, political party, party leader, king, or president. They take an oath to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic." In recent decades -- and especially during the current administration -- the Senate has done a horrible job in protecting the US Constitution because Senators make their decisions based on political ideology -- not the nominee's qualification or his/her potential effect on liberty.

Clearly, the Senate must expedite confirmation of presidential nominees who have a solid record of applying the original intent of the Constitution and halt consideration of all nominees from any administration who do not respect the rule of law or who are hostile to any individual liberty guaranteed by the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Compromise is giving in to the enemies of liberty. There must be no compromise!

I urge the Senate to oppose the nomination of Louis Butler as US District Judge for the Western District of Wisconsin. I consider a vote for him is the same as a vote against the Constitution and my gun rights.