Over two hundred years ago our Founding Fathers overthrew the governance of the British monarchy to become the sovereign United States of America. Today the Obama administration wants to bring back foreign authority.
On March 23rd, Barack Obama nominated Harold Koh to be the State Department's legal adviser. Koh, who worked with the Clinton Administration before he became Dean of Yale Law School in 2004, would have far reaching powers to advise on all legal issues, domestic and international if confirmed. This includes assisting Department principals and policy officers in formulating and implementing the foreign policies of the United States, and promoting the development of international law and its institutions as a fundamental element of those policies. M. Edward Whelan III observed at Bench Memos that Koh “would be advising on the legal positions that the United States should be taking in federal courts on issues arguably implicating international law... He would be counseling State Department officials on international negotiations, treaty interpretation, and treaty implementation; and he would be a major player in interagency disputes on all these matters." This is an extremely powerful position. And, wouldn't you know it? Barack Obama picked one huge radical leftist for the position.
Koh is a noted transnationalist who, based on his writings and statements, aims to use international and foreign law to deprive Americans of our rights as American citizens. Transnational progressivism is a term coined by Hudson Institute Fellow John Fonte in 2001 to describe a movement and political view that endorses a concept of postnational global citizenship and promotes the authority of international institutions over the sovereignty of individual nation-states. Koh is a hardcore transnational progressive.
Koh's transnationalist positions have upset many conservatives. Phyllis Schlafy even warned about Koh recently in an article at Canada Free Press:
Koh is encumbered by a long paper trail that proves he is eager to use foreign and international law to interpret American law. He calls himself a transnationalist, which means wanting U.S. courts to “domesticate” foreign and international law, i.e., integrate it into U.S. domestic law binding on U.S. citizens.
Koh wants to put the United States under a global legal system that would diminish our “distinctive rights culture” such as our broad speech and religion rights, due process and trial by jury. Koh complains that our First Amendment gives “protections for speech and religion... far greater emphasis and judicial protection in America than in Europe or Asia.”
Yes, our Constitution does give individuals more rights and freedom than any other country, and we Americans like those rights and freedoms. But Koh thinks we should bow to foreign rules and court decisions, and to United Nations treaties whether or not we have ratified them.
With Koh advising the State Department unratified treaties including the Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST), Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the International Criminal Court (ICC) would likely to receive renewed attention from the Obama Administration. Enacting these treaties would have a significant impact American sovereignty.
But, that's not all. Koh also does not discriminate against Islamic Sharia Law. 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" (emphasis added). Allah Akbar. How he can justify this position with his support of CEDAW is anyone's guess.
Koh also puts America in the same category as North Korea and Saddam Hussein's Iraq. 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" (again, emphasis added). That sounds reasonable, doesn’t it?
In Congressional testimony Koh has shown that he can be less than completely honest. Power Line pointed out that Koh most certainly hid facts from Congress while testifying in support of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). Power Line claims that Koh declined to mention the interpretations of the CEDAW committee to the Senate because he was attempting to hide the truth about this controversial convention.
It's alarming enough that this dangerous transnationalist is dean of one of the country's premier law schools. It's an absolute nightmare that he might be shaping policy at the State Department. .
Jim Hoft is the proprietor of Gateway Pundit , a blog named one of the top 100 collective news resources at Memeorandum and listed as one of the top 100 blogs in a Carnegie Mellon University study. A million readers come to Gateway Pundit each month to read stories and news that are frequently missed by mainstream media outlets.
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