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BARROW NEWS-JOURNAL
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2017
Opinions
“Private opinion is weak, but public opinion is almost omnipotent. ”
~ Henry Ward Beecher ~
Attempt to block
Gorsuch would be
unwise for Dems
It’s regrettable that the U.S. Supreme Court has
become such a blatant political vehicle for both
parties, but such is the case in 2017.
With President Donald Trump’s nomination of
Judge Neil Gorsuch to fill the seat left vacant by
Justice Antonin Scalia’s death last year, a giant
legal fight over Gorsuch’s confirmation may be on
its way.
Many Democrats, feeling the need to get even,
are in support of a filibuster of Gorsuch in the U.S.
Senate. They believe retaliation is in order after
Senate Republicans refused
to hold hearings last year
for moderate judge Merrick
Garland, who then-President
Barack Obama nominated to
replace Scalia.
To them, no matter
Gorsuch’s qualifications, he
would be an illegitimate jus
tice because of the way the
whole Garland situation went
down. The seat would be
“stolen.”
Yes, the petulance shown
by Senate Majority Leader
Mitch McConnell and his fellow Republicans was
ridiculous so it’s understandable the Democrats
would now be eager to oppose the new president
at every turn. And Gorsuch, like any other justice,
should be thoroughly vetted.
But whether or not you would agree with his
approach to interpreting the Constitution or his
political leanings, Gorsuch is considered by almost
all of his colleagues on both sides of the fence to be
exceptionally qualified for the seat.
Thus, he deserves hearings and a vote and
Democrats would be unwise to block them.
The Democrats are currently operating with limit
ed power. They have lost the White House, are the
minority party in Congress and, on a nationwide
scale, only control roughly a third of governorships.
As a result, their margin of error is a lot less than
that of congressional Republicans the previous six
years when they played political gridlock with the
Obama administration.
A confirmation of Gorsuch would restore the
court to its status before Scalia’s death. That is
four conservatives (Chief Justice John Roberts
and justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito
and Gorsuch), four liberals (justices Ruth Bader
Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan and Sonia
Sotomayor) and one more or less in the middle,
Justice Anthony Kennedy, who has often been the
swing vote for the court’s most politically-charged
cases in recent years.
If the Democrats attempt to filibuster Gorsuch,
McConnell may very well opt to invoke the “nuclear
option,” which would eliminate the 60-vote require
ment for cloture on nominees to the Supreme
Court and instead allow debate to be cut off by a
simple majority vote.
Trump is set to be president for at least the next
four years and Ginsburg is not getting younger at
83. Kennedy is 80. Breyer is 78. By contrast, the
youngest of the three reliably conservative justices
currently sitting on the court is Thomas at 68.
Now, there’s no way Ginsburg or Breyer would
leave the court during the Trump presidency other
than death. But if that were to happen and Trump
were to get another crack at it, he could go even fur
ther to the right or more unconventional in terms of
a qualified nominee. And without the 60-vote rule
in place, Democrats would be powerless to stop it.
Though historical trends suggest Democrats will
one day regain control of Congress, the prospects
of that don’t look great in the 2018 midterms. While
Republicans will only have to defend eight Senate
seats, Democrats will have to defend 23 as well as
two seats held by independent senators who cau
cus with the Democrats.
If Trump is re-elected or any other Republican is
elected in 2020 (Yes, I think there very well might be
a primary challenge.), it would mean another four
years of control over Supreme Court vacancies like
ly to change the balance of the court for decades.
The Democrats lost in 2016 for far more reasons
than just an awakening of white nationalism and
if they want to win, they need to re-examine their
vision and how they are articulating it to people
across the country.
New methods of thinking and new blood are
needed, but with the re-election of Nancy Pelosi
as House Minority Leader and Chuck Schumer,
another member of the old guard, as Senate
Minority Leader, that doesn’t appear to have fully
sunk in yet.
Perhaps one way they could turn their fortunes
and start winning more elections is to become a
political party that, for once, aspires to be the adult
in the room, that stands on principle while choos
ing its battles wisely and thoughtfully, and that seeks
to end the polarization and hypocrisy more and
more Americans have grown fed up with.
If they decide to fight Gorsuch tooth and nail out
of spite, they risk further marginalization that could
take years to dig their way out of.
Scott Thompson is editor of the Barrow News-
Journal. He can be reached at sthompson@bar-
rownewsjournal. com.
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Georgia gives Trump
some problems
For a couple of months, Georgia was
probably one of Donald Trump’s favorite
states.
Thanks to Georgia’s Republicans, he
received 16 electoral votes here, which
was a key part of the Electoral College
coalition that enabled him to
claim the presidency despite
trailing Hillary Clinton by nearly
three million popular votes.
Trump’s gratitude could be
seen in his selection of two
Georgians, Congressman Tom
Price of Roswell and former gov
ernor Sonny Perdue, for appoint
ments to his cabinet. These are
among the most prestigious posi
tions in Washington.
Recent events may be causing
Trump to reconsider his feelings
towards our fair state.
Several days before Trump was sworn
into office, Congressman John Lewis of
Atlanta said he would boycott the inau
guration and questioned the legitimacy
of Trump’s election.
An outraged Trump fired back with a
series of Tweets denouncing Lewis and
trashing the Fifth Congressional District
that he represents.
“Congressman John Lewis should
spend more time on fixing and helping
his district, which is in horrible shape
and falling apart (not to mention crime
infested) rather than falsely complain
ing about the election results,” Trump
complained.
Barely more than a week later, another
Washington figure with a Georgia back
ground was doing battle with Trump:
Sally Yates, the acting attorney general.
Yates, a holdover from the Obama
administration, was temporarily serv
ing as head of the justice department
until a new attorney general could be
confirmed. She instructed the depart
ment’s lawyers not to defend in court
Trump’s controversial executive order
banning Muslim immigrants from seven
countries.
“I am responsible for ensuring that
the positions we take in court remain
consistent with this institution’s solemn
obligation to always seek justice and
stand for what is right,” Yates wrote.
“At present, I am not convinced that
the defense of the Executive Order is
consistent with these responsibilities nor
am I convinced that the Executive Order
is lawful.”
Trump was even more outraged by
this affront to his authority. Within hours,
he had fired Yates.
“The acting Attorney General, Sally
Yates, has betrayed the Department of
Justice by refusing to enforce a legal
order designed to protect the citizens of
the United States,” the White House said
in a statement. “Ms. Yates is an Obama
Administration appointee who is weak
on borders and very weak on illegal
immigration.”
It’s easy to brush aside Lewis’ state
ments about Trump as sour grapes from
a member of the party that lost the pres
idential election.
It’s a little more difficult to ignore
Yates’ statements, however.
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of the writer.
When she was a federal prosecutor
in Georgia, the defendants that Yates
sent to prison included Atlanta’s cor
rupt Democratic mayor, Bill Campbell.
Lewis, in fact, opposed the Obama
administration’s decision to appoint
Yates as the U.S. Attorney
in Atlanta precisely
because she had prose
cuted Campbell.
When President
Obama named Yates the
deputy attorney general
in 2015, both of Georgia’s
Republican senators
voted to confirm her,
along with most of the
Senate Republicans.
“She is fair; she is
smart; she is intelligent,”
Sen. Johnny Isakson said
at Yates’ confirmation. “Sally Quillian
Yates is a great Georgian and will be a
great Deputy U.S. Attorney General of
the United States of America.”
Yates’ opinion about the legality of
Trump’s immigration order is also being
supported by federal judges across the
country. Several of these judges have
issued temporary injunctions to block
enforcement of the order.
The most far-reaching of these judicial
rulings, which is national in its scope,
was issued by federal Judge James
Robart of Seattle, a George W. Bush
appointee.
In his hearing on the executive order,
Robart noted that since the terrorist
attacks of 2001, no attacks had been
carried out on U.S. soil by individuals
from the seven countries specified in
Trump’s travel ban. For Trump’s order to
be constitutional, Robart said, it had to
be “based in fact, as opposed to fiction.”
We have seen that Tmmp is a person
who hates to be contradicted by any
one. He is a dominant personality who
demands that everyone else submit to
his will.
In the first two weeks of his admin
istration, he has been confronted by
two Georgians who disagreed with him
publicly.
You have to think that he will exact
some kind of revenge against the state.
What will it be?
Tom Crawford is editor of The Georgia
Report, an internet news service at gare-
port.com that reports on state govern
ment and politics. He can be reached at
tcrawford@gareport. com.
The Barrow News-Journal
Winder, Barrow County, Ga.
www.BarrowJournal.com
Mike Buffington
Scott Buffington
Co-Publisher
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Scott Thompson
Editor
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Also covering beats are Ron Bridgeman and Alex Pace.
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Local Christian
group helps
resettle refugees
from war-torn
countries
“Refugee” has suddenly become a
dirty word in the U.S.
President Trump’s recent refugee ban
has put a negative focus on refugees
from around the world. Ugly anti-ref
ugee Facebook memes have become
ubiquitous. The fog
of hatred is thick in
political debate.
That’s because
many Americans,
especially those
who seem to hate
refugees the most,
have never met a
refugee. Most don’t
know the difference
between a refugee
and an immigrant.
Their hatred is in
the abstract, a
vague “us” vs. “them” mentality even
when they don’t know who “them” really
is.
To better understand the refugee issue
at the ground level, I went to nearby
Comer last week where Jubilee Partners,
a Christian service organization, has
been welcoming refugees to the U.S.
since 1980.
In that time, Jubilee has helped resettle
over 3,700 refugees from 33 different
countries. Most, if not all, have become
American citizens.
Jubilee tends to specialize in refugees
who come from rural areas and who
may not have as much education or
skills as refugees who come from urban
environments.
There are seven houses for refugees to
live in while they’re at Jubilee, along with
day care services, preschool and adult
and children classes.
Typically, refugees will spend two or
three months at Jubilee learning the
basic skills needed to survive in the
U.S. From there, most go to the City of
Clarkston near Stone Mountain, a town
that has a large refugee community.
Clarkston offers affordable housing,
public transportation and access to
jobs, said Jennifer Drago, our host at
Jubilee. But about 45 former refugee fam
ilies have also resettled in the Madison
County area.
Drago introduced me to three former
refugees who came to America from
Burma several years ago. Although they
now speak English, these women contin
ue to take classes at Jubilee.
I asked them how they became refu
gees and ended up in rural Northeast
Georgia.
They said they were part of a minority
ethnic group in Burma known as Karen.
Burmese soldiers came into their villages
and forced them out during that coun
try’s military regime. They first fled into
the jungle for a month, but eventually
made their way to a large refugee camp
in Thailand.
That camp provided basic services like
food and medical care, but the refugees
aren’t allowed to leave the camps to
work. Nor could they return home to
Burma without risking their lives.
One woman said she only began think
ing about coming to the U.S. after her
young daughter got seriously ill. After
nine years of living in the Thailand camp,
she and her family were allowed to
come to the U.S. as refugees. Here, her
daughter got the kind of medical care
that wasn’t available to her in the camp.
All three women I spoke with have
become American citizens (a five-year
wait and costing $700) and continue to
live in the Madison County area. They
bought houses.
Their children attend area schools.
Their husbands work in nearby poul
try plants. They and their families have
become productive American citizens.
And they are lucky.
It’s not easy for many refugees to get
the right paperwork to apply for refugee
status. In many rural villages, there are
no birth certificates, marriage licenses,
etc.
I asked these three former refugees
what they thought about the four-month
ban on refugees announced by Trump
two weeks ago.
See Buffington on Page 5A