WASHINGTON (ABP) — A study of Senate records shows many of President Bush's judicial nominees who are religious and hold pro-life views have been approved by senators — including Democrats.
Many religious conservatives recently accused Senate Democrats of blocking Bush's judicial nominees on the basis of their conservative faith or views on abortion rights, claiming a prejudice against “people of faith.”
To date, the Senate has approved 208 Bush nominees to the federal courts since he took office in 2001. Senate Democrats have used a procedural move to block 10 others.
A study by Democratic Senate staffers indicates at least 106 of Bush's judicial nominees who were approved by the Senate claim religious affiliation with a particular congregation. And at least a dozen of the successful nominees have previously advocated pro-life positions or been affiliated with groups that oppose abortion rights. The vast majority of those 100-plus judges were approved without objection from Senate Democrats.
Some conservative evangelical Christian leaders — led by James Dobson of Focus on the Family and Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council — held a nationally televised rally April 24 accusing Democrats of using a “litmus test” against pro-life nominees.
“[F]or nominees to be held back from opportunity because they have chosen a faith that might advise against abortion, same-sex 'marriage' and similar issues is deplorable,” Perkins wrote in the April 29 edition of his e-mail newsletter.
Senate rules require 60 votes in the 100-member body to close debate on any issue and move on to a substantive vote. Republicans, who hold a 55-member majority, have been frustrated that all of the chamber's 44 Democrats and one left-leaning independent have used the tactic known as a “filibuster” to block nominees they consider objectionable.
Democrats said the idea that they are using the filibuster to block some of Bush's judicial nominees because of their religious beliefs is preposterous. Many moderate religious leaders, including the heads of most of the nation's major Protestant denominations, denounced the rhetoric used by Dobson and others in the “Justice Sunday” telecast.
And President Bush, in his April 28 press conference, said he did not believe Democrats were targeting his nominees because of their faith, although he did disagree with the decision to filibuster some nominees.
According to documents provided to Associated Baptist Press by Tracy Schmaler of the Senate Judiciary Committee, at least 106 approved judges listed affiliations with religious congregations in biographical information provided to the committee.
The committee has historically not inquired about judicial nominees' religious affiliations, but candidates often voluntarily list church memberships or other religious activities in documents they provide to the committee.
According to the study, those listing religious affiliations included eight Baptists, 54 Catholics, 12 Methodists, eight Presbyterians, four Jews, and three Mormons. That listing is “likely conservative in number” since the study was not complete and not all nominees list religious affiliations, said Schmaler, press secretary to Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), the Judiciary Committee's ranking Democrat.
Schmaler said the Senate has approved at least 12 Bush judges “with active pro-life or anti-choice records or involvement before appointment,” including at least eight appointees to powerful federal appeals courts. Schmaler said the number of appointees with pro-life positions could increase as research is completed, noting few nominees provide that information as a matter of course.
Nonetheless, Perkins — as recently as his April 29 e-mail newsletter from the Family Research Council — said Democrats are blocking some nominees due to religious or pro-life beliefs.
“It was Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) who launched an inquiry into a nominee's 'deeply held personal beliefs,'” Perkins wrote. “What are those personal beliefs? In most cases, it appears to be the filibustered nominees' personal views on abortion, homosexuality and other issues where the Catholic and evangelical churches have clear positions that are contrary to that of today's Democrats and their liberal allies.”
Perkins listed examples. “William Pryor [a Bush nominee to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals] failed the Democrats' test because he said he personally believed, as a Catholic, that abortion is an abomination,” he wrote. Judge Charles Pickering, a nominee to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, “was denounced by the National Organization for Women, a key player in the filibuster fight, because he used Bible quotations in some of his opinions,” Perkins wrote.
But, according to several civil-liberties groups, Pryor was objectionable because of his views on church-state issues and other civil-rights stances. And while the National Organization for Women denounced Pickering, many other objections to him came over his judgments and published views on civil rights and his treatment, as a Mississippi judge, of a white man convicted of burning a cross on an African-American family's property.
Family Research Council representatives have declined to return repeated requests from Associated Baptist Press for comment on this subject. A representative for Focus on the Family declined to comment.
But Leahy, in an April 22 speech to the Senate, said charges such as Perkins' were dishonest, at best. “This smear of good men and women as 'against faith' is wrong. This slander is laden with falsehoods and permeated by the smoke and mirrors of partisan politics,” Leahy, a Catholic, said.
“Maybe this slander is the only thing that tests well in their political polls, so that even though untrue it is the one thing they can agree upon,” he continued. “This is the equivalent of the 'weapon[s] of mass destruction' justification for attacking Iraq. It is not true, but it is convenient.”