You may have seen the IFI E-Alert I sent to you last week regarding President Barack Obama’s nomination of David W. Ogden to be the Deputy U.S. Attorney General, the “CEO” of the Department of Justice. More than 1,200 Illinois residents have already contacted our two U.S. Senators.

Take ACTION: If you have not yet done so, please contact Senators Durbin and Burris to ask them NOT  to confirm someone who advocated an extreme position on a federal child-pornography statute that the Senate unanimously repudiated 16 years ago.

Update
We understand that there will be no further hearings in the Senate Judiciary Committee on Ogden’s nomination. The Senate Judiciary Committee was expected to have voted last Thursday, February 5, but they are now expected to vote this Thursday, February 12.

Assuming his nomination is commended to the full Senate, the full Senate will probably vote within days of the Committee’s vote. You may find the members of the Senate Judiciary Committee here:http://judiciary.senate.gov/about/members.cfm.

To our knowledge, neither of our two U.S. Senators have formally stated their intentions should Mr. Ogden’s nomination reach the Senate Floor.

At last week’s committee hearings and in face of the mounting national opposition, it was not surprising that Mr. Ogden retreated from virtually every position he has held for years. But a lifetime portfolio of work is not overcome by one week’s worth of testimony when a position one covets is at stake!

Thank you again for your thoughtful consideration of this matter.

God bless you,

David E. Smith
Executive Director