Brown Defends Her Pro-Life Record in Senate Judicial Hearing
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
October 23, 2003
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — Janice Brown, a black pro-life California Supreme Court justice appointed by President Bush for an appeals court position, defended her record on Wednesday against attacks by black and pro-abortion lawmakers.
Brown is under fire because of her pro-life views. In 1998, she sided with the minority in a parental notification case. While the majority of the California Supreme Court struck down the pro-life law, Brown said the law was necessary to help teen girls make better decisions than abortion.
"I have only one agenda when I approach a case, and that is to try to get it right,” she told the Senate Judiciary Committee at her confirmation hearing.
Brown has been nominated by Bush for a spot on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, considered the nation’s second highest court after the Supreme Court.
Pro-life senators say Brown’s detractors oppose her simply because she is a pro-life black jurist who could someday sit on the U.S. Supreme Court, along with pro-life Justice Clarence Thomas, who is also viewed unfavorably by pro-abortion and many black lawmakers.
Brown will likely be approved on a party-line vote by the judicial panel, but her nomination in the full Senate is up in the air and depends entirely on whether Democratic senators will launch a filibuster as they have done with other Bush pro-life nominees.
Pro-life Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), chairman of the Judiciary Committee, described Brown as "one of the great jurists in this country."
Pro-abortion Rep. Diane Watson (D-CA) said Brown "makes Clarence Thomas look like Thurgood Marshall."
Three current Supreme Court justices have been promoted from the DC court.
Related web sites:
Justice Brown’s biography – https://www.usdoj.gov/olp/brownresume.htm
ACTION: Contact your senators and encourage them to support the nomination of Janice Brown. You can reach any senator at 202-224-3121 or go to https://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
