Deacon Keith Fournier: "Why I Disagree with Doug Kmiec, Once Again"

Deacon Keith Fournier notes that, yes, it is possible to walk and chew gum at the same time as he takes on Prof. Doug Kmiec's latest Obamalotry at Catholic Online:

... Now back to Doug Kmiec’s newest article. My comment on the importance of the fact that the next President will make significant judicial appointments is not rooted in some misguided notion overturning Roe v wade will end abortion. Rather, it is rooted in a pragmatic belief that we need to hold back further damage from the horrors unleashed in its wake while we set about the task of rebuilding a sane and civil Jurisprudence. My pragmatic conviction is rooted in my own experience as a Lawyer for almost thirty years and my realistic assessment of what needs to be done to rebuild the walls of western civilization which are crumbling.

I like the imagery of the Biblical Book of Nehemiah. There was a dual effort undertaken by Israel in rebuilding the walls of the City. Some soldiers were stationed with a sword, preventing further devastation and fighting back the enemies of true progress. Others, the ones whose work was even more important, were wielding trowels and cement, rebuilding the walls of the City. So it must be with those of us who recognize the truth that the so-called “Abortion Right”, created by judicial whimsy by the Court in Roe v Wade, must be fought with a sword while we rebuild a culture collapsing around us.

I served as co-counsel on three US Supreme Court cases involving pro-life speech and religious freedom issues. They involved a strategic decision to use an incremental approach to holding back the further erosion of the infrastructure of our Constitutional rights as Christians who are also citizens so that we could continue our task of seeking to influence the culture. I have regularly maintained and written that the end of Roe will not be the end of legal abortion. Rather, it will result in the necessity of battling this out in every State. However, I believe that it will buy us the time to rebuild the Walls on a number of levels.

Not unlike segregation and slavery, the so called “abortion right” is wrong, it is immoral, it is unjust. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in his stirring "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" wrote "An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law." We must work to rebuild an acceptance that there even is an objective Moral law, based upon which we live our lives together and promote a truly just and compassionate society where the common Good is served.

However, as we do that, we need to do all within our power to ensure that there is not one more vote on the US Supreme Court to enshrine the Roe v wade Precedent any longer. Too many young lives continue to be taken and too much blood shed through the unjust War on the Womb which has been waged under the cover of that horrid decision. The Police Power of the State has enforced its perfidy. I am not a fan of the emphasis on Judicial “Strict Constructionism” as a panacea. It has permeated the language and the approach of the “conservative” movement and brought no change to the current proliferation of abortion. In fact, I have written that the co-opting of Catholics and other Christians concerned about true social justice by the “religious right” has sometimes undermined progress.

In the beginning of the Primary season of the Presidential contest in the United States which led up to this current General election quandary we now face, I found it reprehensible that certain “conservative” public personalities who purported to be “pro-life” were willing to support former Mayor Giuliani. They justified such action because he was purportedly a “strict constructionist” and would appoint Justices who were strict constructionists. The man is an unabashed proponent of abortion as a constitutional “right”, even though it violates the Natural Law.

However, we now face the two candidates as we enter the General election. I am not happy with either candidate. I wrote the article to which you respond to share with our readers how I will approach the next few months as both of these candidates lay out their policy positions.

I will not support a candidate who promises to appoint Justices who will continue to perpetrate the injustice of calling Abortion, the taking of innocent human life, as a “right” by securing the Precedent of Roe v Wade. Particularly because I know that he promised Planned Parenthood that, if elected, he would use his Office to make appointments to the Bench who would protect and secure the decision.

Sorry Doug, I disagree with you again.

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My Comments:
In the end, I think Deacon Fournier is much too kind in his response to Kmiec in that he doesn't call him on his sophistry. It is apparent to anyone paying attention that there is something else going on beneath the surface of Kmiec's apologetics on behalf of Obama.


Previous Pro Ecclesia posts on this subject:
Give It a Rest Already, Prof. Kmiec!

Deacon Keith Fournier: "No More ‘Left’ or ‘Right’, Time for a New Catholic Action"

Doug Kmiec's Newfound Celebrity Status Among Those on the Left

Doug Kmiec Soon To Be Sorely Disappointed

E.J. Dionne on Kmiec Being Denied Communion [UPDATED]

Deal Hudson on Prof. Kmiec and Blurring the Lines Between "Pro-Choice" and Pro-Abortion

Did Doug Kmiec Just Now Catch On That Obama and NARAL Are Politically Conjoined? [UPDATED]

Deal Hudson on "How Obama's Catholics Will Dodge the Infanticide Question"

Kmiec's Dishonesty [UPDATED]

Catholic Teaching and Political Risk Taking: When Credit Isn't Given Where Credit is Due [UPDATED]

Kmiec's Wishful Thinking on Obama and Abortion

The Curt Jester: "Shameless Garment" [UPDATED]

So-Called "Catholic Reaganite" Doug Kmiec Endorses Obama [UPDATED]

"No'bama for Me, Thanks"Can a Catholic Vote for Obama?

Obama's Pledge to Planned Parenthood: “I Will Not Yield"

Deal Hudson: "Barack Obama's Catholic Problem"

"Why American Catholics are Supporting Barack Obama

Catholics at the Ballot Box

How the Catholic Left Will Tackle McCain

Why Does Kmiec Criticize McCain for Positions on Which He Gave Romney a Pass?

Deal Hudson on "Douglas Kmiec and the Lure of Obama"

Douglas W. Kmiec on "The Moral Duty to Inquire"

Professor Bainbridge: "Will Catholic Reaganites Go for Obama?"

Deal Hudson: "Preacher Man: Barack Obama and the the Gospel of Liberalism"

"Sorry, Doug Kmiec, But This Catholic Isn't Buying Obama"

Ramesh Ponnuru on Douglas Kmiec and "Catholic Reaganites for Obama" [UPDATED]

Romney Advisor Says Obama "a Natural for the Catholic Vote"

Obama "Post-Partisan"? Ask John Roberts

Obama and the "Pragmatic Center"