Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Obama nominee sees no "reason why sharia law would not be applied to govern a case in the United States"

From Jihad Watch:

harold_koh.jpg
Big fan of "transnational legal process"

On top of that, this Obama pick believes that "America's focus on the War on Terror [is] 'obsessive.'" And his list of countries that flagrantly disregard international law highlights North Korea, Iraq, and the U.S.A. -- which he collectively calls "the axis of disobedience."

"Obama's most perilous legal pick," by Meghan Clyne for the New York Post, March 30 (thanks to Doc Washburn):

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.

President Obama has nominated Koh -- until last week the dean of Yale Law School -- to be the State Department's legal adviser. In that job, 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.

What would this look like in a practical sense? Well, California voters have overruled their courts, which had imposed same-sex marriage on the state. Koh would like to see such matters go up the chain through federal courts -- which, in turn, should look to the rest of the world. If Canada, the European Human Rights Commission and the United Nations all say gay marriage should be legal -- well, then, it should be legal in California too, regardless of what the state's voters and elected representatives might say.

He even believes judges should use this "logic" to strike down the death penalty, which is clearly permitted in the US Constitution.

The primacy of international legal "norms" applies even to treaties we reject. For example, Koh believes that the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child -- a problematic document that we haven't ratified -- should dictate the age at which individual US states can execute criminals. Got that? On issues ranging from affirmative action to the interrogation of terrorists, what the rest of the world says, goes.

Including, apparently, the world of radical imams. 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.

Koh has called America's focus on the War on Terror "obsessive." In 2004, he listed countries that flagrantly disregard international law -- "most prominently,North Korea, Iraq, and our own country, the United States of America," which he branded "the axis of disobedience.[...]

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.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

The only way to stop this is if the blogosphere exposes him like it did over Chas Freeman.

Ro

Damien said...

Pastorius,

Well at least we know Jihad Watch is a trust worthy source and the did a better Job backing up their claims about Harold Koh, then the Traditional Values organization did, when it came to Judge David Hamilton Obama is already turning out to be a bad president. A very bad president. Koh is either super ignorant or unwilling to face facts. I probably know more about Sharia than him and he has a law degree. Also to make matters worse, he thinks that the American constitution is either irrelevant or subject to international law or subject to the will of judges.

Damien said...

Pastorius,

By the way, Rob Taylor has pointed out something else Obama has been up to, and you won't like it. Here's the disturbing story. It has something to do with something called the ACTA Agreement.

Epaminondas said...

"Axis of disobedience"?

How bad is this shit going to get?
Was Carter doing all this and in 76 we just had no way to report it all?

Epaminondas said...

The ACTA story is from a russian web site, Russia Times. I can't validate that anywhere, or even find any other items not based on that.

kevin said...

Koh is against capital punishment and in favor of gay marriage, but he thinks that sharia can used in the United States? This idiot doesn't even make any sense.

Damien said...

Epaminondas

You wrote,
---------------------------------------------------------
The ACTA story is from a russian web site, Russia Times. I can't validate that anywhere, or even find any other items not based on that.
---------------------------------------------------------

Did you click on the link in my last comment, it takes you to the Red Alerts website? It also has a video to go along with it which backs up the ACTA story.

Epaminondas said...

No, thanks Damien, I'll look

Damien said...

Epaminondas,

You're welcome

Damien said...

Just to let you guys know, mah29001 also did a blog_entry on Koh recently.