WASHINGTON (ABP) — For the second time, President Bush has used a special administrative maneuver to install a controversial nominee to a federal court.
On Feb. 20, at the end of Congress' Presidents Day recess, Bush used his recess-appointment power to place Alabama Attorney General Bill Pryor (R) on the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Pryor is among six of Bush's appeals-court nominees who have been held up due to Democratic filibusters.
Democrats object to some of Pryor's statements and actions on church-state and abortion-rights issues, arguing that he is an extremist and would be a conservative “judicial activist.”
Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) called Bush's recess appointment of Pryor “an abuse of power.” The recess-appointment provision allows a president to install any of his nominees without the normal approval of the Senate while Congress is in recess.
On Jan. 16, Bush used Congress' Martin Luther King Jr. Day recess to appoint Mississippi judge Charles Pickering to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Pickering had also been the subject of a filibuster, with Senate Democrats arguing that his record on civil rights, church-state issues and abortion is extreme.
In announcing Pryor's appointment, Bush said that the nominee's “impressive record demonstrates his devotion to the rule of law and to treating all people equally under the law. He has received widespread bipartisan support from those who know him and know his record.”
Some Republicans argued that Pryor, who is a conservative Catholic, and Pickering, who is a former president of the Mississippi Baptist Convention, were victims of “religious profiling” because of their faith. But Democrats noted they had already approved dozens of Bush's Catholic and Baptist nominees. They also noted that Pryor was less-than-orthodox in his Catholic faith, since his public position in support of the death penalty directly contradicts Roman Catholic doctrine.
Pryor sparked controversy for his support of former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore's effort to display a monument to the Ten Commandments in the state's judicial headquarters building. However, Pryor ultimately turned against Moore after Moore defied federal court demands to remove the monument from the building's rotunda.
Pryor served as Moore's prosecutor in the state judicial-ethics trial that ultimately resulted in Moore's removal from office.
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