It's Recess-time Somewhere

Proud Member of the Reality-Based Sandbox

December 24, 2004

If At First You Don't Succeed....

...nomimate the previously-rejected judges again.

So, Mr. Bush is renominating a whole slew of judges to the federal appeals court and federal district courts who have been previously rejected.

Here are some of his choices:

Justice Owen of the Texas Supreme Court was filibustered four times. At the center of the debate were her strong anti-abortion legal views, notably in her largely unsuccessful efforts to make it difficult for teenagers to obtain abortions without parental consent.

Mr. Pryor, who was named to the appeals court by Mr. Bush during a Congressional recess, thereby sidestepping the Senate, is a former Alabama attorney general. He was known during his tenure in Alabama as an outspoken opponent of legalized abortion and an advocate of a greater role for religion in government. His work as a judge has been largely unnoticed, but he did provide a critical vote upholding Florida's law against adoption by gay couples.

William G. Myers III, nominated for the Ninth Circuit, was opposed because his critics said he could not be fair on environmental cases, citing his long career as a lobbyist for the ranching and mining industries.

And my personal favorite:

William J. Haynes IV, the Pentagon's general counsel, who has been deeply embroiled in controversy over memorandums he wrote or supervised that secretly authorized harsh treatment, even torture, for detainees held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and in Iraq. Mr. Haynes's nomination to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, based in Richmond, Va., was suspended when the issue erupted and he was asked by the Judiciary Committee to provide material about his role in the issue and failed to do so.