Senate Will Vote on Two Pro-Life Judicial Picks This Week

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Jun 6, 2005   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

Senate Will Vote on Two Pro-Life Judicial Picks This Week Email this article
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
June 6, 2005

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — The Senate will vote this week on the confirmations of two of President Bush’s pro-life appeals court nominees. The filibuster deal made by a bipartisan group of 14 senators ensures the nominees will receive a vote, and they will likely be approved.

The Senate will consider the nominations of California Supreme Court judge Janice Rogers Brown for 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and Alabama Attorney General Bill Pryor, who was given a recess appointment to sit on the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals.

Both have been the subject of filibusters for years, in part because of their strong pro-life positions against abortion.

In 1997, Brown issued a well-researched dissent in a case where the California Supreme Court overturned a pro-life law requiring abortion facilities to obtain parental consent before performing an abortion on a teenage girl.

Pryor drew praise from pro-life groups and criticism from abortion advocates after his stalwart defense of his pro-life position during hearings in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

"I believe that not only is [Roe] unsupported by the text and structure of the Constitution, but it has led to a morally wrong result. It has led to the slaughter of millions of innocent unborn children," Pryor told members of the Senate panel.

Bush appointed Pryor to the court in a recess pick and pro-abortion Sen. Ted Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat, filed a lawsuit seeking to prevent it. However, federal courts determined that Bush’s recess appointment was constitutional.

While regular appointments are for life, recess appointments are only temporary. Pryor’s term on the court concludes at the end of 2005 and he needs the Senate to confirm him in order to take his permanent seat on the appeals court.

ACTION: Contact your senators and urge support for President Bush’s judicial picks. You can call the Senate at 202-224-3121 or find contact information for any senator at https://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm