WASHINGTON (BP)–The Senate confirmed appeals court nominee William Pryor by a vote of 53-45 June 9, placing a staunch conservative who had been filibustered on the federal bench.
The Senate also confirmed appeals court nominees David McKeague and Richard Griffin, both of whom previously had been filibustered but were no longer opposed by Senate Democrats. The Senate confirmed McKeague 96-0, Griffin 95-0. They will sit on the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Pryor, though, was the focus of debate.
Nominated in April 2003, he was part of a compromise by a group of 14 senators in May that allowed most of President Bush’s filibustered nominees to receive an up-or-down vote.
Pryor now has a lifetime seat on the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, where he currently is serving under a temporary recess appointment that would have ended this year. The 11th Circuit is based in Atlanta and covers Alabama, Florida and Georgia.
The filibuster on Pryor ended June 8 on a 67-32 vote. Sixty votes were needed.
“William Pryor believes in interpretation of the law — not rewriting the law according to his own political views,” Majority Leader Bill Frist, R.-Tenn., said on the floor.
The compromise allowed filibusters on Pryor, Priscilla Owen and Janice Rogers Brown to end while allowing two other filibusters — those on William Myers and Henry Saad — to continue. Pryor, Owen and Brown all have been confirmed. Owen and Brown passed on identical 56-43 votes.
Liberal interest groups, led by abortion rights and homosexual activist organizations, had led the opposition to the three nominees.
Christian conservatives support Bush’s nominees and hope they will help reverse decades of socially liberal rulings on such issues as abortion, religious freedom and homosexual activism.
Last year in a case before the 11th Circuit, Pryor sided with justices in allowing Florida’s ban on homosexual adoption to stand. Because it was a 6-6 decision, his vote was critical. The tied decision allowed a three-judge panel’s ruling — also upholding the law — to stand.
In addition, as Alabama attorney general Pryor submitted a friend-of-the court brief to the Supreme Court in the Lawrence v. Texas case, siding with Texas in asking the justices to allow bans on sodomy to continue. The court, though, overturned the sodomy laws.
“William Pryor is the most demonstrably antigay judicial nominee in recent memory,” Kevin Cathcart, executive director of the homosexual activist group Lambda Legal, said in a statement.
Pryor has also angered abortion rights groups by past comments calling Roe v. Wade “the worst abomination in the history of constitutional law” and saying the ruling has led “to the slaughter of millions of innocent, unborn children. That’s my personal belief.”
Minority Leader Harry Reid, D.-Nev., criticized Pryor’s record on civil rights.
“I oppose this nominee because his views on a wide range of vital issues are far outside the mainstream of legal thought,” Reid said on the floor. “I question his ability to put those views aside and to decide cases impartially.”
Frist, though, said, Pryor has an “outstanding recording on civil rights.”
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R.-Utah, also applauded Pryor’s record.
“Judge Pryor’s credentials, his character and his commitment to judicial restraint already made a compelling case for his appointment,” Hatch said. “His continuing service on the 11th Circuit only adds to that compelling case.”
Focus on the Family’s James Dobson applauded the Senate for confirming the nominees but added that no nominee should be blocked from receiving an up-or-down vote.
“William Pryor has finally received the up-or-down vote to which he was entitled two years ago,” Dobson said in a statement. “His confirmation, and the confirmations of Priscilla Owen, Janice Rogers Brown, Richard Griffin and David McKeague, are nothing less than what President Bush and the American people have expected of the U.S. Senate.
“While we are pleased these nominees will now begin serving on the federal bench, the ill-advised deal by which some of them received their confirmations continues to leave numerous well-qualified men and women in judicial limbo. We call on the members of the Senate to put a permanent end to judicial filibusters and bring all of the president’s nominees to the Senate floor for up-or-down votes. Only by doing so will they provide ‘advice and consent’ as prescribed by the Constitution.”
McKeague and Griffin previously were opposed by Michigan Sens. Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow — two Democrats — in retaliation for nominees that were blocked in committee during the Clinton administration. McKeague and Griffin are both from Michigan.
Frist said the Senate will vote on appeals court nominee Thomas Griffith June 14. He had not been filibustered.
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