Vote May Come as Early as Wednesday

Any doubt that President Obama is more anti-Second Amendment than perhaps any president in history can be laid to rest in the light of the characters he has nominated to the federal judiciary.

Obama’s latest nominee for a U.S. District Court post is John McConnell, a Providence, Rhode Island, trial lawyer. In terms of being an activist for the far left, McConnell is right in line with Obama’s Supreme Court picks—Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.

It comes as no surprise that leading gun control proponents in the Senate support McConnell: he has contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to liberal, anti-gun candidates over the years, including Obama and Rhode Island’s two senators.

In fact, it appears that McConnell’s chief qualifications for this post are his generous contributions to liberal candidates and his long relationship with former Rhode Island attorney general and current Senator, Sheldon Whitehouse.

However, even in a world where political backers are often selected to fill openings for judgeships and other federal jobs, the size of McConnell’s contributions sets him apart from other nominees. In 2008 alone, for example, McConnell gave over $120,000 to Democrat candidates.

He also served as treasurer of the Rhode Island Democratic State Committee, which raises the question of whether he could serve impartially on the federal bench.

McConnell’s views on the Constitution are also extremely troubling. In written questions that were part of McConnell’s confirmation hearings, Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) asked the nominee if he believed the Second Amendment and the Bill of Rights protected fundamental rights. McConnell responded evasively and refused to declare what he considered to be fundamental, individual liberties.

Of course, McConnell repeatedly insisted that he would be “bound by applicable Supreme Court and First Circuit precedent” on Second Amendment issues. But nothing in the Heller and McDonald decisions necessarily preclude an anti-gun ideologue from ruling that almost any gun law short of a total ban on firearms—including gun owner registration, purchasing limits, waiting periods, private sale background checks, and more—is consistent with the Constitution.

ACTION: Click here to read the rest of the article and send a prewritten email to urge your Senators to vote “NO” on any votes related to John McConnell’s nomination.