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CAPITOL HILL The Senate Judiciary Committee has approved the last of four hotly disputed judicial nominees on a party line vote. The ten-to-eight vote sends acting appeals court Judge William Pryor's nomination to the Senate. Democrats blocked his nomination in President Bush's last term. But Bush gave him a temporary seat on the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta with a recess appointment. They've vowed to filibuster Pryor and three other Bush nominees this time around, too. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist has threatened to disallow future filibusters and force a vote on Pryor and the others. Democrats say...

Senate Judiciary Committee approves William Pryor for appointment to federal bench -- Bloomberg

Republican judges killed Terri -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: May 9, 2005 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2005 WorldNetDaily.com There's a good reason congressional Republicans will not hold investigative hearings on the judicial homicide of Terri Schiavo. Republican judges killed her, just as surely as the Democrat judges did. This is the dirty little secret that would be uncovered if Republican lawmakers scratched beneath the surface of how and why the 11th Circuit ignored the will of the people and the U.S. Congress and the president of the United States in refusing a full review of her case as decided by Republican county Judge...

It was November 2003 and Alabama Attorney General Bill Pryor was coming off a dismal week. In Alabama, Christian conservatives were seething at his role in booting Chief Justice Roy Moore from the Alabama Supreme Court. On Capitol Hill, Senate Democrats had repulsed another attempt to confirm Pryor for a lifetime judgeship on the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. But on a Saturday morning at a swank downtown Washington, D.C., hotel ballroom, dozens of lawyers were rising to their feet as the visibly moved Mobile native stepped to the front. The occasion was a national gathering of the...

One more reason in a long history that judicial appointments will not solve the problem of leftist judges and judicial tyranny was seen on Mar. 23, 2005, in the request for emergency rehearing of the 11th Circuit en banc of the case of Schiavo v. Schiavo when George W. Bush recess appointment William H. Pryor, Jr., voted AGAINST rehearing. Rather than joining in the cogent and spirited dissent of Judge Tjoflat or associating himself with the dissent of Judge Wilson (a Clinton appointee) in the original three-judge panel, he voted with the majority in the 10-2 denial of rehearing. Judge...

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected three challenges to President Bush's recess appointment last year of conservative former Alabama Attorney General William Pryor to a federal appeals court. Attorneys for several criminal defendants had argued the president can only make such an appointment during a recess at the end of the year between sessions of Congress, not during an adjournment in the middle of a congressional session like in Pryor's case. They also said the presidential power extended only to recess appointments for the executive branch of the government, not those for the federal judiciary, and that Bush's "unilateral"...

Senate Republicans are eyeing an April showdown over President Bush's judicial nominees that could end in a Senate rule change--known as the "nuclear" option--that forbids filibusters of presidential nominees. Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter (R.-Pa.) is planning to act then on three conservative nominees: California Supreme Court Justice Janice Rogers Brown, Texas Supreme Court Justice Priscilla Owen and recess-appointed U.S. Circuit Judge William Pryor. None will require new hearings before a committee vote. Each was filibustered by Democrats in Bush's first term.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter (R.-Pa.) plans to usher judicial nominee William H. Pryor, Jr. through his committee without a new hearing, a committee aide told HUMAN EVENTS Monday. Senate Democrats blocked Pryor in two filibusters in July and November 2003. In an effort to circumvent the Democrats' opposition, President Bush gave Pryor a recess appointment to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Feb. 20, 2004. The appointment expires at the end of 2005 when Congress adjourns. Since taking his seat on the 11th Circuit, Pryor has authored "progressive" and "moderate" opinions, Specter said at a February 24...

(CNSNews.com) - A religious watchdog group is blasting the Bush administration for re-submitting the nominations of judges the group has urged the Senate to defeat. On Monday, Bush re-nominated 20 failed judicial nominees, some of which have been denounced by liberals as "right-wing extremists." Americans United for Separation of Church and State Tuesday criticized the Bush administration's "stubbornness" for re-submitting William Pryor and Janice Rogers Brown for nomination to the federal bench. "This administration is bent on radically re-making the federal bench," said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, Americans United executive director, in a press release. "No one can take...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 23 - President Bush plans to renominate 20 candidates for federal judgeships who have been unable to win confirmation in the Senate, the White House said today, in a signal that the president is ready for a showdown early next year. "An effective and efficient judicial system is vital to ensuring justice for all Americans," the White House said. "The president nominated highly qualified individuals to the federal courts during his first term, but the Senate failed to vote on many nominations." Senate Democrats have maintained for months that they have routinely confirmed nominees who are not right-wing...

Refusing to be brushed off by Democratic opposition in the Senate, President Bush plans to nominate for a second time 20 people who did not receive up or down votes on their nominations for federal judgeships. ...snip... When the 109th Congress convenes on Jan. 4, Bush intends to re-nominate the following 12 individuals for the U.S. Court of Appeals: Terrence W. Boyle, 4th Circuit; Priscilla Richman Owen, 5th Circuit; David W. McKeague, 6th Circuit; Susan Bieke Neilson, 6th Circuit; Henry W. Saad, 6th Circuit; Richard A. Griffin, 6th Circuit; William H. Pryor; 11th Circuit; William Gerry Myers III, 9th Circuit;...

A federal appeals court ruled Thursday that President Bush did not overstep his authority when he appointed William Pryor to the bench while the Senate was on a holiday break. The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a challenge by Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., who argued that the Alabama judge's appointment to the same court was an end-run around the Senate's right to confirm or reject the president's judicial nominees. Pryor was appointed to the 11th Circuit during the Presidents' Day recess in February, after the Senate refused twice to bring his nomination to a floor vote. His nomination had...

Until Wednesday afternoon, the significance of Judge William H. Pryor Jr.'s recess appointment to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was largely symbolic. His appointment by President Bush outraged senators who objected to Pryor's record on issues such as gay rights, abortion and federalism. As Alabama attorney general, Pryor defended statutes criminalizing homosexual sodomy, spoke out against decisions legalizing abortion and won cases trimming congressional power over the states. Democrats blocked a vote on his nomination, but the president's recess appointment will allow him to be on the court through 2005. Since Pryor joined the bench in February, his...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Sen. Edward Kennedy is trying for the third time to persuade the colleagues of federal appellate Judge William Pryor to bump him from the bench. The Massachusetts Democrat is asking the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta to rule that President Bush's appointment of Pryor in February during a congressional recess was unconstitutional. "Immediate consideration of this issue is critical: Judge Pryor has already sat or is scheduled to sit on over 60 cases, all of which may have to be reheard and re-decided if his appointment is ultimately adjudged invalid," Kennedy said in a...

<p>ATLANTA (AP) — Sen. Edward Kennedy lost a legal challenge to President Bush's appointment of former Alabama Attorney General Bill Pryor to a federal appeals judgeship.</p> <p>Pryor's appointment has been vigorously opposed by Democratic senators who have objected to his past comments and writings on abortion and homosexuality. After the Senate failed to confirm Pryor's appointment, Bush installed him on the 11th U.S. Circuit of Appeals on Feb. 20 as a "recess appointment," which does not require Senate confirmation.</p>

WASHINGTON — The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday denied Sen. Edward Kennedy's petition to file an amicus brief in three cases in order to challenge the constitutionality of Judge William Pryor's recess appointment. Kennedy, however, has vowed to keep challenging Pryor's appointment. "It's disappointing that the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit declined to consider, at least for now, the constitutionality of President Bush's recess appointment of William Pryor to that court in February," Kennedy said in a statement.

Slate columnist Timothy Noah speaks with former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore, who gained national recognition for placing a monument to the Ten Commandments in the courthouse lobby in defiance of a court order. Moore discusses issues ranging from gay marriage, the separation of church and state and his own political ambitions.

Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) has asked his staff to put together a case that he hopes will prove that President Bush’s recess appointment of Alabama Attorney General William Pryor to the U.S. Court of Appeals was unconstitutional. At issue is whether the 10-day period when Congress was away constituted a “recess” in which such appointments are provided for in the Constitution. Some constitutional scholars believe that the Founding Fathers may have been referring to the far lengthier recess periods that occur between sessions and Congresses. Recesses lasting many months were common in the early days of the Republic, before the...

<p>Last Friday, President Bush announced the recess appointment of Alabama Attorney General William H. Pryor to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. This is Mr. Bush's second recess appointment to a judgeship in two months, and only the third such appointment by a president since 1980. Considering that the highly qualified Judge Pryor had no chance of beating a Democratic filibuster, we are happy to see the president make this rare but necessary move. After resigning his position as Alabama attorney general on Friday, Judge Pryor called the moment "bittersweet." We would have to agree.</p>

Bill Pryor Got His Judas Money By Chuck Baldwin February 25, 2004 According to news reports, "President Bush used a recess appointment Friday [Feb. 20] to give Alabama Attorney General Bill Pryor a seat on the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily. Pryor was sworn in by U.S. Circuit Judge Ed Carnes in a private ceremony in Alabama Friday. His appointment is expected to last until the end of 2005." Faithful readers of this column know that Pryor was the political Judas who turned against Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore after promising former Alabama Governor Fob James and...