David B. Sentelle - a Jesse Helms crony and enabler of the Clinton witchhunts - is a right wing hack and, most unfortunately, a member of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, having been appointed by Reagan. Yesterday, Sentelle, along with Judge A. Raymond Randolph, whose two earlier opinions on habeas corpus and Guantánamo prisoners had also favored the Bush administration, helped to decide that foreign born detainees lack the right to habeaus corpus
I know that the appelate court decision has been a heavily diaried topic from yesterday on. But I thought I would diary just on one key player in this decision, specifically, on the consistent right-wing hackery of this wretched player.
Sentelle, a Federalist society judge, has been described by Salon as "a crony of North Carolina's far right-wing Sens. Jesse Helms and Launch Faircloth." He is likely remembred by Democrats for his apparent conflict of interest in the rightwing-manufactured Whitewater "scandal" involving former president Clinton and the appointment of Ken Starr as a special prosecutor. As Salon points out, the Sentelle panel had appointed Starr just after Sentelle lunched with Faircloth, who'd long been calling for the head of Starr's predecessor as Whitewater independent counsel, Republican Robert Fiske.
Here is a Wikipedia profile of this right wing hack.
Judge David Bryan Sentelle (born 1943) was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on February 2, 1987. Sentelle attended law school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Sentelle practiced law until becoming an assistant U.S. Attorney in Charlotte, North Carolina in January 1970. From 1974 to 1977, Sentelle was the North Carolina State District Judge. He then practiced law privately until being appointed to the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina by President Ronald Reagan in 1985. Sentelle was appointed to his current position to replace Antonin Scalia in 1987.
On the D.C. Court of Appeals, Sentelle voted to overturn the convictions of Oliver North and John Poindexter, along with Judge Laurence Silberman. He was one of the judges responsible for appointing Kenneth Starr to replace Robert B. Fiske as lead independent council to investigate President Bill Clinton.
As the American Politics Journal points out,
Sentelle cut his political teeth as a Republican activist in conservative North Carolina. A known supporter of right-wing hardliner Jesse Helms, Sentelle chaired North Carolina's state Republican convention in 1980. Judge Sentelle further endeared himself to the powerful right wing when he joined ultra-conservative fellow Appeals Court justice Laurence Silberman in overturning Oliver North's Iran-Contra convictions. According to Lawrence Walsh in his 1997 book Firewall, "Sentelle had been the swing vote" by supporting Silberman's obvious disdain for Walsh's investigation.
This journal also explains his membership in the Federalist Society, stating
The Federalist Society is a conservative, tax-exempt legal organization that supports staunchly right-wing positions. That in and of itself doesn't mean much -- except when you consider that they seek to take over our judicial system by numerous means. Through active recruitment of young law school students, grooming for possible judicial appointments, and networking of judicial activist attorneys and judges throughout the country, the Federalist Society -- aided by Nixon, Reagan, and Bush appointments -- has helped establish a shadow justice system within our justice system.
They make no secret of their goals, though they do not use particularly political rhetoric to declare their intent. However, according to Society executive director Eugene B. Meyer in a 1996 press release:
"[L]inks Federalist Society lawyers with like-minded groups and individuals needing legal assistanceÉ. In sum, theÉ Society educates the legal community and the general public about the proper role of the legal system, activates legal professionals on behalf of conservative causes, and provides assistance to friendly local, state-wide, and national groups."
In fact, in their "Statement of Purpose" the Society states it is the "duty of the judiciary to say what the law is, not what it should be." Yet in the very next paragraph we read, "This entails reordering priorities within the legal system to place a premium on traditional values [T]he Society has created a conservative intellectual network that extends to all levels of the legal community." And, obviously, the only way to realize this vision is to work from the inside.
If the Society's own words aren't enough to show their right-wing penchant and desire to establish a judicial system biased toward their conservative beliefs, let's look a few members of the Federalist Society's Board of Trustees:
-- Robert Bork, ultra-conservative author of Slouching Toward Gomorrha and the former Solicitor General in the Nixon Administration who fired Archibald Cox in the Watergate "Saturday Night Massacre."
-- Senator Orrin Hatch, conservative Republican legislator and scathing Clinton critic.
-- C. Boyden Gray, former White House Counsel to -- and 12-year employee of -- former President George Bush.
-- Holland Coors, member of the ultra-conservative Coors family and wife of Iran-Contra financial contributor Joseph Coors. She is also a board member of the Heritage Foundation.
-- Edwin Meese III, former Reagan Attorney General, participant in the Iran-Contra cover-up, and Attorney General during Sentelle's appointment to the Special Division bench.
Having established what the Federalist Society is, we now need to know if Special Division Judge David Sentelle is connected to it. Well, the connections are there Ð but it takes a little digging.
If you look on the Society's website, there is a section explaining how law students can start new Federalist Society Chapters. Within that online "manual" there is a list titled, "Past Participants." On the list is Judge Sentelle. He shares that distinction with others like Reagan, Bush, Chief Justice Rehnquist, Bill "The Death of Outrage" Bennett, Impeachment Managers Bob Barr and Henry Hyde, former Dole running-mate Jack Kemp, and a former Reagan Solicitor General you may have heard of: Kenneth W. Starr, relentless Clinton inquisitor.
Talk about being known by the company you keep!
Given this background, and the blatant partisan bias of Sentelle, it makes ironic the complaints of the right about the liberalism of "activist judges." Indeed, it appears to me that it is right wing activists who are made into judges by their right wing backers.
However, given the seriousness of the issues of habeas corpus and the rights of the accused, we can see the pathetic consequences of political hackery maskerading as a judiciary rubber stamping the (probably unconstitutional) acts of a quasi-fascistic Congress which itself was a rubber stamp for an out of control administration.