Obama Doesn't Let Down: Another Trainwreck Nominee

[travelinman67]

This time, it's transnationalist attorney/Yale Law School Dean...Harold Koh...nominated to top legal adviser postion at State Department...

OBAMA'S MOST PERILOUS LEGAL PICK
Koh: Wants US courts to apply "world law."
By MEGHAN CLYNE
March 30, 2009

http://www.nypost.com/seven/03302009/po ... htm?page=0

JUDGES should interpret the Constitution according to other nations' legal "norms." Sharia law could apply to disputes in US courts. The United States constitutes an "axis of disobedience" along with North Korea and Saddam-era Iraq.

Those are the views of the man on track to become one of the US government's top lawyers: Harold Koh.

...Koh would forge a wide range of international agreements on issues from trade to arms control, and help represent our country in such places as the United Nations and the International Court of Justice.

It's a job where you want a strong defender of America's sovereignty. But that's not Koh. He's a fan of "transnational legal process," arguing that the distinctions between US and international law should vanish.

...in addressing the Yale Club of Greenwich in 2007, Koh claimed that "in an appropriate case, he didn't see any reason why sharia law would not be applied to govern a case in the United States."

Koh has also praised the Nicaraguan Sandinistas' use in the 1980s of the International Court of Justice to get Congress to stop funding the Contras. Imagine such international lawyering by rogue nations like Iran, Syria, North Korea and Venezuela today, and you can see the danger in Koh's theories.

Koh, a self-described "activist," would plainly promote his views aggressively once at State. He's not likely to feel limited by the letter of the law -- in 1994, he told The New Republic: "I'd rather have [former Supreme Court Justice Harry] Blackmun, who uses the wrong reasoning in Roe [v. Wade] to get the right results, and let other people figure out the right reasoning."

Worse, the State job might be a launching pad for a Supreme Court nomination. (He's on many liberals' short lists for the high court.) Since this job requires Senate confirmation, it's certainly a useful trial run.

Hmmm...I sense a Borkish future for Mr. Koh...

[hank scorpio]

Harold Hongju Koh

Dean and Gerard C. and Bernice Latrobe Smith Professor of International Law
Harold Hongju Koh is the 15th Dean of Yale Law School and Gerard C. and Bernice Latrobe Smith Professor of International Law. On March 23, 2009, President Barack Obama nominated Dean Koh to be Legal Adviser to the United States Department of State. His day-to-day duties are currently being assumed by Acting Dean Kate Stith, until a successor is chosen.

He began teaching at Yale Law School in 1985 and has served since 2004 as its fifteenth Dean. From 1998 to 2001, he served as U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, and previously had served on the Secretary of State's Advisory Committee on Public International Law. Before joining Yale, he practiced law at Covington and Burling from 1982-83 and at the Office of Legal Counsel at the Department of Justice from 1983-85.

Dean Koh is a leading expert on public and private international law, national security law, and human rights. He has argued before the United States Supreme Court and he has testified before the U.S. Congress more than twenty times. He has been awarded eleven honorary doctorates and three law school medals and has received more than thirty awards for his human rights work. He is recipient of the 2005 Louis B. Sohn Award from the American Bar Association International Law Section and the 2003 Wolfgang Friedmann Award from Columbia Law School for his lifetime achievements in International Law. He is author or co-author of eight books, including Transnational Litigation in United States Courts, Foundations of International Law and Politics (with O. Hathaway); Transnational Legal Problems (with H. Steiner and D. Vagts), Transnational Business Problems (with D. Vagts and W. Dodge), and The National Security Constitution, which won the American Political Science Association's award in 1991 as the best book on the American Presidency. He was also the editor of The Justice Harry A. Blackmun Oral History Project (1994-95). He has published more than 150 articles on international human rights, international business transactions, national security and foreign affairs law, international trade, international organizations, international law and political science, and procedure.


He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society, an Honorary Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, a former Visiting Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford, and a member of the Council of the American Law Institute. He has held fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the Century Foundation. He has sat on the Board of Overseers of Harvard University and sits on the Boards of Directors of the Brookings Institution, Human Rights First, the American Arbitration Association, and the National Democratic Institute. He has been named one of America's “45 Leading Public Sector Lawyers Under The Age of 45” by American Lawyer magazine and one of the “100 Most Influential Asian-Americans of the 1990s” by A magazine.

A Korean-American native of Boston, he holds a B.A. degree from Harvard College and B.A. and M.A. degrees from Oxford University, where he was a Marshall Scholar. He earned his J.D. from Harvard Law School, where he was Developments Editor of the Harvard Law Review, and served as a law clerk for Justice Harry A. Blackmun of the United States Supreme Court and Judge Malcolm Richard Wilkey of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.


Education
M.A., Oxford, 1996
J.D., Harvard, 1980
B.A., Oxford, 1977 (Marshall Scholar)
A.B., Harvard, 1975

Courses Taught
Balancing Civil Liberties & National Security after September 11
International Human Rights: Law and Policy
Introduction to Transnational Law
Procedure

Sounds like a real jerk, commie, pinko, America hater!

[danefan]

Yes yes yes......horrible move by Obama!

Nominate one of the greatest legal minds in the WORLD (yes, you read it right - the WORLD). Horrendous move.

Probably should have filled the DOJ with graduates of this Law school like Bush did:
http://www.regent.edu/acad/schlaw/admis ... uthome.cfm

Our mission includes:

The education and training of students to become excellent lawyers within the standards of the legal profession.

The grounding of students in biblical foundations of law, legal institutions, and processes of conflict resolution; recognition of questions of righteousness in the operation of law; and pursuit of true justice through professional legal service.

The nurturing and encouragement of students to become mature Christians who exercise the gifts of the Holy Spirit and display the fruit of the Holy Spirit in their personal and professional lives.

The nurture and encouragement of other law students, practicing lawyers, judges, legislators, government officials, educators and others to recognize and seek the biblical foundations of law, to recognize questions of righteousness in the operation of law; and to pursue true justice.

[dbackjon]

Yes yes yes......horrible move by Obama!

Nominate one of the greatest legal minds our country has to offer. Horrendous move.

So what is so great about him? And why is T-man up in arms?

[hank scorpio]

I was (very impolitely) reading someone else's New York Post on the subway this morning. There was an article about outgoing Yale Law School dean Harold Koh, whom President Obama recently nominated to serve as the Legal Adviser of the State Department. The paper's purchaser eventually stared me down, and I meekly said, "Sorry -- I was surprised the Post had such a strong opinion about this Harold Koh guy."

My subway interlocutor (I love NYC) offered: "Yeah. Well, the article says he was a Dean of Yale Law School. That's a pretty good school right. You gotta assume that Obama wouldn't have nominated somebody who knows nothing about the law, so I'm guessing the writer is just an idiot."

I don't want to assume anything, But the random guy on the subway seems to be at least as well-informed as Meghan Clyne, the "DC-based writer" who wrote an anti-Koh op-ed in today's New York Post. Check out her analysis of Koh's credentials:

Judges should interpret the Constitution according to other nations' legal "norms." Sharia law could apply to disputes in US courts. The United States constitutes an "axis of disobedience" along with North Korea and Saddam-era Iraq.
Those are the views of the man on track to become one of the US government's top lawyers: Harold Koh.

Umm ... context, please?

Wait, what am I talking about? Context? In the Post? Check out the latest terrorist sympathizer in the Obama administration, after the jump.

There are legitimate criticisms that can be leveled at Harold Koh's views (as well as his stewardship of Yale Law School). But Clyne's analysis does not seem particularly sophisticated. If you don't know anything about Dean Koh, international law, or where babies come from, Clyne makes him sound pretty scary:

It's a job where you want a strong defender of America's sovereignty. But that's not Koh. He's a fan of "transnational legal process," arguing that the distinctions between US and international law should vanish.
I'm sorry, I must have missed the bit in law school where one learns that being a "fan" of a multi-jurisdictional approach to international law was at odds with a fully developed concept of America as a sovereign power.

But that's not all. Under Koh's "radical" approach to international law, Clyne would have us believe that burglars in the U.S. will pay for their crimes in dismembered hands:

A New York lawyer, Steven Stein, says that, in addressing the Yale Club of Greenwich in 2007, Koh claimed that "in an appropriate case, he didn't see any reason why sharia law would not be applied to govern a case in the United States."
A spokeswoman for Koh said she couldn't confirm the incident, responding: "I had heard that some guy . . . had asked a question about sharia law, and that Dean Koh had said something about that while there are obvious differences among the many different legal systems, they also share some common legal concepts."

Score one for America's enemies and hostile international bureaucrats, zero for American democracy.

Sorry, Koh just texted me on the Marx-Engels mimeograph -- everybody who contributed to Obama got one -- and I had to go out and stone a woman for her clear violation of the Kyoto Protocol.

Of course, Clyne has a point for all of this, whatever you want to call it:

What happens to Koh in the Senate will send an important signal. If he sails through to State, he's a far better bet to make it onto the Supreme Court. So Senate Republicans have a duty to expose and confront his radical views.
Even though he's up for a State Department job, Koh is a key test case in the "judicial wars." If he makes it through, which he will if he gets even a single GOP vote, the message to the Obama team will be: You can pick 'em as radical as you like.

I just love the smell of a fresh culture war in the morning. But I didn't pay for a copy of the Post today. Take that, Rupert.

http://abovethelaw.com/2009/03/ny_post_ ... s#comments

[danefan]

Yes yes yes......horrible move by Obama!

Nominate one of the greatest legal minds our country has to offer. Horrendous move.

So what is so great about him? And why is T-man up in arms?

I edited my original post.

Koh is the world's absolute #1 legal mind on the relationship between US and International law. Some of the most important legal concepts that will shape our economy and foreign policy going forward in this ever shrinking world.

T-man is up in arm's because Koh does not believe we can just ignore the rest of the world's legal systems like some conservative thinkers would like us to do.

[TwinTownBisonFan]

well said danefan.

[dbackjon]

So what is so great about him? And why is T-man up in arms?

I edited my original post.

Koh is the world's absolute #1 legal mind on the relationship between US and International law. Some of the most important legal concepts that will shape our economy and foreign policy going forward in this every shrinking world.

T-man is up in arm's because Koh does not believe we can just ignore the rest of the world's legal systems like some conservative thinkers would like us to do.

But is there any legitimate indication that he believes international law should be used to trump US law in US courts?

[danefan]

I edited my original post.

Koh is the world's absolute #1 legal mind on the relationship between US and International law. Some of the most important legal concepts that will shape our economy and foreign policy going forward in this every shrinking world.

T-man is up in arm's because Koh does not believe we can just ignore the rest of the world's legal systems like some conservative thinkers would like us to do.

But is there any legitimate indication that he believes international law should be used to trump US law in US courts?

Not that I have seen. His theories include the use of international law to interpret and "fill in the gaps" where US law isn't clear or doesn't provide. And only in situations that involve international issues.

With that being said - his views are not the end-all be-all of legal concepts. I'm sure there are occasions in which his views, while valid, may not be the best for the US or for our legal system. But that is why there are checks and balances and why the system is set up the way it is.

And before TMan quotes some obscure radical speech of Koh's- no - I haven't read every single word the guy has written.

[Ivytalk]

Koh is a smart guy. He has the background necessary for the job as State's legal advisor. As long as he's paid his taxes, his nomination should cruise through the Senate. The sun will rise tomorrow.

[Skjellyfetti]

Hmmm...I sense a Borkish future for Mr. Koh...

Your senses are failing you.

[dbackjon]

Hmmm...I sense a Borkish future for Mr. Koh...

Your senses are failing you.

He meant a "Borgish future"


It is ok, T-man. You will enjoy the collective

[travelinman67]

Koh is a smart guy. He has the background necessary for the job as State's legal advisor. As long as he's paid his taxes, his nomination should cruise through the Senate. The sun will rise tomorrow.

Koh is a lifelong, self-described transnationalist. He would surrender U.S. judicial sovereignty within state department contracts and treaties.

The U.S.'s submission to the U.N. Treaty on the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court ( http://untreaty.un.org/cod/icc/index.html ) IS one of Hillary's top goals, and was one of Bubba's top goals as POTUS

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines/122900-01.htm

The ICC incorporates all the elements of social control sought by traditional American liberals: Gun Control, Abolishment of Death Penalty, etc...and most importantly by signing on with the U.N. Treaty, a goal that goes back since the original Rome statute was chaptered in 1998...

...by doing so...the Bill of Rights becomes a marginal chapter of our country's history, and the U.S. inevitably surrenders it's judicial sovereignty to foreign courts with the U.N. as defacto arbitrators, in effect becoming the World Supreme Court.

To further their scheme, the One World Order clan sell this snake oil to single issue special interest groups, like the LGBT, by citing that International Law allowing/recognizing gay marriage could be used to nullify "bans" like CA's prop 8. Enticed by such promise, folks in the LGBT community, salivate at the opportunity to jump on board with the ICC statute, no realizing that the Treaty is also dependent on Security Council oversight...

...so...human rights travesties, codified lawful by soulless Banana Republics carry the same force and effect as the "gay rights" laws, and the final arbitor of applicablilty falls upon the Secuity Council.

Now...considering China and Russia share votes on the Council, ask yourself if you feel comfortable with the Chinese and Russians having an equal voice on our country's laws as We the people, have...???

Be careful...

No offense Ivytalk, but Obama's cabinet/staff overfloweth with Ivy League attorneys...and while I have no issue with their academic/legal skills, the applicablility of that knowledge as it applies to our country and it's public policy is principally a function of discretion...and having those decisions made by a collaborative of people who all share similar backgrounds/education/life choices, in this case, a generational/regional tendency to climb aboard the "transnational" movement, will NEVER result in the wisest of decisions as they pertain to U.S. sovereignty and long-term interests..

[Ivytalk]

Koh is a smart guy. He has the background necessary for the job as State's legal advisor. As long as he's paid his taxes, his nomination should cruise through the Senate. The sun will rise tomorrow.

Koh is a lifelong, self-described transnationalist. He would surrender U.S. judicial sovereignty within state department contracts and treaties.

The U.S.'s submission to the U.N. Treaty on the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court ( http://untreaty.un.org/cod/icc/index.html ) IS one of Hillary's top goals, and was one of Bubba's top goals as POTUS

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines/122900-01.htm

The ICC incorporates all the elements of social control sought by traditional American liberals: Gun Control, Abolishment of Death Penalty, etc...and most importantly by signing on with the U.N. Treaty, a goal that goes back since the original Rome statute was chaptered in 1998...

...by doing so...the Bill of Rights becomes a marginal chapter of our country's history, and the U.S. inevitably surrenders it's judicial sovereignty to foreign courts with the U.N. as defacto arbitrators, in effect becoming the World Supreme Court.

To further their scheme, the One World Order clan sell this snake oil to single issue special interest groups, like the LGBT, by citing that International Law allowing/recognizing gay marriage could be used to nullify "bans" like CA's prop 8. Enticed by such promise, folks in the LGBT community, salivate at the opportunity to jump on board with the ICC statute, no realizing that the Treaty is also dependent on Security Council oversight...

...so...human rights travesties, codified lawful by soulless Banana Republics carry the same force and effect as the "gay rights" laws, and the final arbitor of applicablilty falls upon the Secuity Council.

Now...considering China and Russia share votes on the Council, ask yourself if you feel comfortable with the Chinese and Russians having an equal voice on our country's laws as We the people, have...???

Be careful...

No offense Ivytalk, but Obama's cabinet/staff overfloweth with Ivy League attorneys...and while I have no issue with their academic/legal skills, the applicablility of that knowledge as it applies to our country and it's public policy is principally a function of discretion...and having those decisions made by a collaborative of people who all share similar backgrounds/education/life choices, in this case, a generational/regional tendency to climb aboard the "transnational" movement, will NEVER result in the wisest of decisions as they pertain to U.S. sovereignty and long-term interests..

No offense back atcha, T-man, but it's a stretch to see the appointment of Harold Koh as the immediate prelude to approval of that U.N. treaty. Remember the Law of the Sea Treaty? There's a lot of difference between academic endorsements and political approval. Don't lose sleep over this one.

[travelinman67]

Koh is a lifelong, self-described transnationalist. He would surrender U.S. judicial sovereignty within state department contracts and treaties.

The U.S.'s submission to the U.N. Treaty on the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court ( http://untreaty.un.org/cod/icc/index.html ) IS one of Hillary's top goals, and was one of Bubba's top goals as POTUS

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines/122900-01.htm

The ICC incorporates all the elements of social control sought by traditional American liberals: Gun Control, Abolishment of Death Penalty, etc...and most importantly by signing on with the U.N. Treaty, a goal that goes back since the original Rome statute was chaptered in 1998...

...by doing so...the Bill of Rights becomes a marginal chapter of our country's history, and the U.S. inevitably surrenders it's judicial sovereignty to foreign courts with the U.N. as defacto arbitrators, in effect becoming the World Supreme Court.

To further their scheme, the One World Order clan sell this snake oil to single issue special interest groups, like the LGBT, by citing that International Law allowing/recognizing gay marriage could be used to nullify "bans" like CA's prop 8. Enticed by such promise, folks in the LGBT community, salivate at the opportunity to jump on board with the ICC statute, no realizing that the Treaty is also dependent on Security Council oversight...

...so...human rights travesties, codified lawful by soulless Banana Republics carry the same force and effect as the "gay rights" laws, and the final arbitor of applicablilty falls upon the Secuity Council.

Now...considering China and Russia share votes on the Council, ask yourself if you feel comfortable with the Chinese and Russians having an equal voice on our country's laws as We the people, have...???

Be careful...

No offense Ivytalk, but Obama's cabinet/staff overfloweth with Ivy League attorneys...and while I have no issue with their academic/legal skills, the applicablility of that knowledge as it applies to our country and it's public policy is principally a function of discretion...and having those decisions made by a collaborative of people who all share similar backgrounds/education/life choices, in this case, a generational/regional tendency to climb aboard the "transnational" movement, will NEVER result in the wisest of decisions as they pertain to U.S. sovereignty and long-term interests..

No offense back atcha, T-man, but it's a stretch to see the appointment of Harold Koh as the immediate prelude to approval of that U.N. treaty. Remember the Law of the Sea Treaty? There's a lot of difference between academic endorsements and political approval. Don't lose sleep over this one.

Fair enough. We'll keep this as a side bet for a beer. I'm asserting a threshhold of an article citing the successful application of an ICC recognized case along with recognition of either Clinton's contribution to enabling the ICC's jurisdiction.

Counter?

[Ivytalk]

T-man, what exactly is the bet? Whether the Senate ratifies the treaty?

[BigApp]

is this guy a tax cheat too? If not, he may have trouble getting Congressional approval...

[travelinman67]

T-man, what exactly is the bet? Whether the Senate ratifies the treaty?

I don't think Congress can politically survive ratifying the treaty, but I think we'll see Congress pass a bill that subjects our military personnel to criminal prosecution under the ICC human rights provisions. And it well be applied retroactively to "war crimes" committed during the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts.
Furthermore, I believe the State Department will slip in regulatory backdoor requirements within it's agreements.
I've been studying this issue since the early '90's and it's always the same cast of players who show up at this debate. They want a "One World Order" under U.N. charter...and if they can chip away at the U.S.'s sovereignty, the rest will fall in due order.

[InformMe]

I would be interested in comments regarding this link:
http://www.rightsidenews.com/index2.php ... =1&id=4230

[wideright82]

I would be interested in comments regarding this link:
http://www.rightsidenews.com/index2.php ... =1&id=4230

I just got that damn worm didn't I?












welcome to the boards.

[dbackjon]

Scared to click link...

[travelinman67]

I would be interested in comments regarding this link:
http://www.rightsidenews.com/index2.php ... =1&id=4230

Nice find, InformMe. It's simply amazing that many of the original advisers who helped "design" the U.N's Mission had extremist agendas...from Sohn's One World Order, to Margaret Sangers use of racist base eugenics, to Ernst Rudin and Julian Huxley's incorporation of "environmental" protection as a device to further their "Supreme Race/Ruling Class" agenda, to the Rockefeller/Osborn Population Council (the "American" version of creating a "Master Race"), and on and on...

...and remarkably, to this day, the liberals unwittingly carry the torch for these same "unholy", inhumanitarian schemes.

The U.N. is the antithetical manifestation of every radical, undemocratic agenda concocted since the evolution of the industrial world. Under U.N. charter, countries and people surrender all rights, democracy evaporates supplanted by a return to a "Ruling Class" government, liberty subordinates to socialism, life becomes a function of class and race.

Koh may be a "bright" legal mind, but has allowed himself to become polluted with the warped, evil agendas of groups who, in any other forum, would be classified as "hate groups" and jailed for their actions.

Yet...once again...the dumby donks bark out the ideologic dogma, defending such men, and attacking anyone who attempts to discuss the hypocrisy and incongruities of their political platform and errant means of pursuit.

[travelinman67]

Scared to click link...

...considering the life you've had...

...trust me, this has LITTLE risk...