In their continued effort to stop President Bush from stacking the nation’s courts with right-wing ideologues, Senate Democrats blocked the nomination of far-right extremist William Pryor to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals. With a vote of 53 to 44, Senate Republicans were unable to obtain the 60 votes needed to approve a cloture vote on Pryor’s nomination.
“Mr. Pryor’s litigation position, public statements and his writings leave little doubt that he is committed to using the law, not simply to advance a conservative agenda, but a narrow and extremely ideological agenda,” said Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA), as reported by the Associated Press.
Senate Democrats also held strong on a filibuster against Miguel Estrada, Bush’s stealth nominee to the DC Circuit Court of Appeals. With a vote of 55-43, Republicans failed in their seventh attempt to gain cloture on Estrada’s nomination.
A cloture vote is scheduled for today on Bush’s nomination of right-wing ideologue Carolyn Kuhl to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Kuhl has a long history of opposing women’s rights. As Deputy Solicitor General in the Reagan Administration’s Justice Department, she advocated the overturn of Roe v. Wade and authored a brief opposing a victim of sexual harassment – siding with the employer in the landmark Meritor Savings Bank case. In 2001, as a judge on the LA Superior Court, Kuhl dismissed a lawsuit brought by a breast cancer survivor against a pharmaceutical company for invasion of privacy after a sales representative for the company stood in on a breast exam without her consent.
