Obama nominee opposed by many GOP state senators

INDIANAPOLIS — Thirty-one Republican state senators have asked U.S. Sens. Evan Bayh and Dick Lugar to oppose the nomination of an Indiana University law professor nominated by President Barack Obama for a senior position in the U.S. Department of Justice.

In a letter May 15, the state senators said Dawn Johnsen's advocacy of abortion rights "is more than simply pro-choice — she is pro-choice in an extremely radical way."

The letter, citing statements and writings by Johnsen, asks Bayh, a Democrat, and Lugar, a Republican, to oppose Johnsen's nomination to be assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Counsel in the Justice Department.

"It's a statement from a very strong pro-life caucus," said Indiana Senate President Pro Tem David Long, R-Fort Wayne. "It is not based on the fact she is pro-choice, it is based on the fact that she is radically so."

Johnsen, in response to an e-mail from The Associated Press seeking comment, replied with an e-mail saying that as a nominee she was not to talk with the media.

White House spokeswoman Amy Brundage said Johnsen "will bring unquestioned integrity and a commitment to non-partisan interpretation of the law to the Office of Legal Counsel, and we're pleased that both of Indiana's senators have expressed support for her nomination."

Lugar spokesman Andy Fisher said in an e-mail Monday that although Lugar has said he would not oppose her nomination, Democrats who control the U.S. Senate do not currently have enough votes to move it forward.

Bayh spokesman Eric Kleiman said Bayh supports her nomination.

The letter from 31 of the 33 Republicans who control the Indiana Senate asks Bayh and Lugar to consider what Johnsen's nomination "could mean for the future of the country."

Long said he was contacted by Indiana Right to Life and was asked to send the letter to Bayh and Lugar requesting that they oppose the nomination. Indiana Right to Life issued a news release about the letter on Monday.

Long said he had the letter circulated among fellow Republican state senators, and he and 30 others signed onto it.

Vaneta Becker of Evansville and Teresa Lubbers of Indianapolis were the only state Senate Republicans who did not sign the letter.

Becker said she had not seen the letter and did not know enough about Johnsen to have an opinion. Lubbers said she declined to sign the letter because she believed the decision was up to Lugar. She said her decision had nothing to do with the abortion issue.

Walter Dellinger, who served as assistant attorney general and head of the Office of Legal Counsel from 1993 to 1996, said Monday that he once worked with Johnsen at the Justice Department, where she was a deputy assistant attorney general. Johnsen was acting assistant attorney general in the office in 1997 and 1998 after Dellinger moved on to become solicitor general.

Dellinger, now a private attorney in Washington, said the Office of Legal Counsel is chiefly concerned with presidential authority and the separation of powers — a field in which he said Johnsen was a legal scholar.

He also sent an e-mail that said her legal work at the outset of her career for an abortion rights advocacy organization came at a time when it seemed the U.S. Supreme Court might overturn Roe V. Wade.

"But the relevant question is not what causes or parties an individual has worked for in the past, but whether this is a person who can put those prior public service efforts aside when entering into the United States Department of Justice," the e-mail said. "Officials of both parties have shown that men and women of character do just that."