Senate Ends Filibuster Against Bush Pro-Life Judicial Nominee 
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
June 7, 2005
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — The Senate has ended its two year long filibuster against pro-life appeals court nominee Janice Rogers Brown. The vote sets up a final confirmation vote on her appointment to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, regarded as the nation’s second highest court.
The Senate voted 65 to 32 to end the filibuster after a bipartisan group of lawmakers reached a deal last month to end the filibusters and allow votes on some of the president’s judicial appointments.
A final floor vote on Brown’s nomination is expected Wednesday.
Sen. Jeff Sessions, an Alabama Republican, told colleagues that Brown, a member of the California Supreme Court, is "one of the best nominations the president has made. She is a woman of integrity and ability."
But abortion advocates have opposed her nomination because she is 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.
To end a filibuster, lawmakers need 60 votes and they were only able to find 53 to end debate back in November 2003 when the first filibuster vote on Brown’s nomination occurred.
The Senate is also expected to vote soon on ending debate on the nomination of former Alabama Attorney General Bill Pryor to the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Last week, the Senate confirmed the nomination of pro-life Texas Supreme Court judge Priscilla Owen to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans.
