Orrin Hatch: “I want to talk about another matter very near and dear to my heart. For some time now, I have been discussing the…”

“I want to talk about another matter very near and dear to my heart. For some time now, I have been discussing the differences in judicial philosophy between the judges selected by Republican Presidents and the Presidents from the other side of the aisle. These differences can have real and profound consequences for the safety of Americans and their neighborhoods, homes, and workplaces. These differences, I might add, have serious consequences. During these various speeches that I have given, I called attention to certain Clinton judges who have long track records of being soft-on-crime, liberal activists. One of these judges is Judge H. Lee Sarokin, a Clinton appointee to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Judge Sarokin has displayed an undue and excessive sympathy for criminals and is too willing to impose his own moral beliefs onto the law and onto our communities. Judge Sarokin is the judge, this body may recall, who, before he was elevated by President Clinton to the third circuit, ruled that a homeless man could not be barred from a public library because of his body odor even though it was offending everybody in the library. Judge Sarokin also issued several other activist decisions as a district judge, including some released convicted murderers from jail. I opposed his elevation to the third circuit because I believed he would continue his own special brand of judicial activism.”