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Bush's Newest Judicial Picks Drawing Strong Opposition

Bush's most recent nominations are drawing strong criticism --and not just from liberals or democrats. Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) is leading a move to delay the confirmation of James Leon Holmes who is up for a seat on the U.S. District Court in Arkansas. The New York Times reports Holmes is the former president of Arkansas Right to Life. But it is his writings that have come under fire.
One example the Democrats cited was a 1997 article that Dr. Holmes and his wife, Susan, wrote for a newspaper, Arkansas Catholic, about men, women and Roman Catholicism. The article said that "the wife is to subordinate herself to her husband" and that "the woman is to place herself under the authority of the man" in the same way that "the church is to place herself under the protection of Christ." The same article went on to say, "It is not a coincidence that the feminist movement brought with it artificial contraception and abortion on demand, with recognition of homosexual liaisons soon to follow."
The second nominee facing criticism today is William Pryor of Alabama, up for a seat on the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. The Washington Post, which has previously supported most of Bush's picks, has this to say today about Pryor in an editorial, Unfit to Judge:
Mr. Pryor is probably best known as a zealous advocate of relaxing the wall between church and state. He teamed up with one of Pat Robertson's organizations in a court effort to defend student-led prayer in public schools, and he has vocally defended Alabama's chief justice, who has insisted on displaying the Ten Commandments in state court facilities. But his career is broader. He has urged the repeal of a key section of the Votings Rights Act, which he regards as "an affront to federalism and an expensive burden." He has also called Roe v. Wade "the worst abomination of constitutional law in our history." Whatever one thinks of Roe, it is offensive to rank it among the court's most notorious cases, which include Dred Scott and Plessy v. Ferguson, after all.
You can read more about Pryor in today's Fulton County Daily Report, here.

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