Patrick Trueman, former chief of the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section of the Justice Department, spoke with CitizenLink about the president's choice for deputy attorney general.
Q. Tell me about David Ogden.
A. David Ogden is someone who has represented the pornography industry, representing, for example, Playboy, Penthouse. He’s been involved with some of the most prominent pornography cases, including the challenge to the Children’s Internet Protection Act, which keeps pornography out of public libraries and public schools that receive federal dollars. He thought that was restrictive on adults.
David Ogden filed a brief in the notorious Knox v. U.S. case in the United States Supreme Court supporting Knox, who was a child pornographer. This created a firestorm in the Clinton administration because Janet Reno wanted the Supreme Court to throw out the conviction, and President Clinton publicly rebuked Janet Reno for her weak position on child pornography. And she changed her position in the case, but David Ogden didn’t. He has also represented the largest mail-order pornographer in the country, PHE; that’s out of North Carolina. Phil Harvey is the president of that company.
He’s also someone who, on other family issues like abortion, has been on the side of Planned Parenthood, filing a brief in support of their position in Casey v. Planned Parenthood in the United States Supreme Court. This was the case that almost overturned Roe v. Wade, but Justice Kennedy switched his position. And this had a variety of positions in it: parental notification, spousal notification, etc.
He supported homosexuality in the case of Lawrence v. Texas.
He’s everything the pro-family movement has fought against, yet as deputy attorney general, he will be the chief executive officer of the U.S. Department of Justice. Certainly, he reflects President Obama on Obama’s positions on pornography, homosexuality and abortion. We can see this from the nomination. And I believe David Ogden is being groomed for a position on the United States Supreme Court, with this appointment to a high office.
Q. We hear about Obama trying to reach across the aisle and come to some middle ground. I’m no expert on the issue, but it seems like he could not have made a worse choice.
A. Right. If the pro-family movement feared one person who had a shot at getting this important position, it would be David Ogden. And with regard to President Obama, he’s interested in having tea with Republicans. He’s interested in inviting them to White House functions.
President Obama, in the short term of his office, has set himself squarely against the pro-family movement.
Q. It sounds like Ogden has spent a good part of his career fighting the law and now he’s supposed to defend it.
A. Yes. He won’t defend it, though. He will use his office of legal counsel, which interprets the law, to change the law. And I would guess, under his direction, you’ll see a law on same-sex benefits throughout the government and maybe even in the private sector. He would, of course, be in charge of whether or not the Department of Justice enforces the laws against pornography; and we’ve seen both on adult pornography and on child pornography, he is not with us.
This is a very dangerous appointment, and the trifecta of appointments here spells trouble for the pro-family agenda.
Q. Is there anything else you want to add about this nominee?
A. Let me just make a comment that appointments to the Department of Justice, more than to any other department, reflect a president’s moral agenda. An appointment to the Department of Commerce, even to Health and Human Services, only reflects the president’s partial agenda. But on the moral agenda, you can see from a president’s appointment to high positions in the Department of Justice where they stand. He is appointing people to run the Department of Justice, to interpret the laws of our nation, to carry out the laws of our nation, who will fight fiercely against the pro-family movement. And President Obama is a man the pro-family movement should fear, and we can see this in his appointments. He’s not reaching across the aisle. He’s not compromising on the moral agenda.
