[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 39 (Wednesday, April 13, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[Congressional Record: April 13, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
CONTROVERSY FEARED WITH POTENTIAL NOMINATION OF DREW DAYS AS SUPREME
COURT JUSTICE
(Mr. SMITH of New Jersey asked and was given permission to address
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, if President Clinton nominates
Solicitor General Drew Days for the U.S. Supreme Court, I can guarantee
you that he will be in for a rough ride and some very tough scrutiny.
Americans will want to know why Mr. Days--acting on behalf of
President Clinton--had intervened on behalf of a convicted pedophile, a
man who had been duly arrested, charged, and convicted on Federal
charges of possessing child pornography.
Americans will want to know why Mr. Days continues to seek a
significant weakening, or gutting, of the Child Protection Act. Pat
Trueman, former chief of the Justice Department's Child Exploitation
and Obscenity Section, has noted that ``if the Days interpretation had
been in effect during the Reagan and Bush administrations, much if not
most of the child pornography cases prosecuted by the Justice
Department could not have been brought.''
Americans want to know why Mr. Days has turned aside the clear,
unambiguous intent of Congress--recently reaffirmed in a unanimous vote
in the Senate. (The House will shortly vote on this.) And 234 Members
from both sides of the aisle have filed an amicus brief against the
administration's indefensible position.
The bottom line, Mr. Speaker, is that Americans will want to know
why, why, why Mr. Days coddles and protects exploiters and abusers of
children, rather than our kids. If nominated for the High Court,
Americans are forewarned that Mr. Days' sympathies are with the kiddie
porn industry and not with the victims of this pernicious form of child
abuse: our young children.
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