July 9—President George W. Bush’s drive to pack the federal courts with ultra-conservative and ideologically driven judges steered even further away from the mainstream American with his nomination of Alabama Attorney General William Pryor for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, a wide range of civil rights, union, women’s and community groups warn.
Pryor “has authored or joined numerous legal briefs challenging the constitutionality of a host of federal employment protections, including the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the Age Discrimination in Employment Act and the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA),” the AFL-CIO wrote in a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee. The committee is scheduled to vote on Pryor’s nomination July 10.
The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, says Pryor “has demonstrated a commitment to rolling back the clock on federal protections against discrimination based on race, gender, age and disability. Pryor also has urged Congress to eliminate key provision of the Voting Rights Act, which protects the right to vote for African Americans and other racial minorities.”
In his role as attorney general, Pryor challenged a key provision of the ADA, arguing before the U.S. Supreme Court that it was unconstitutional for states to be sued under ADA for money damages by state employees. By a 5–4 vote, the court agreed. That decision, says Jim Ward, director of the Americans with Disabilities Act Watch, prevents persons with disabilities from collecting monetary damages from their state employers and has resulted in fewer attorneys willing to represent clients in state employer ADA cases.
“Despite the massive record of egregious conduct toward individuals with disabilities by states that Congress had compiled—including instances of forced sterilizations, unnecessary institutionalization, denial of education and systematic prejudices to and stereotyping perpetrated by state actors—Pryor argued that states were actually in the forefront of efforts to protects the rights of individuals with disabilities,” Ward says.
Pryor Has Sought to Overturn Federal Law
Pryor has a long record as a “states’ rights” advocate, “frequently urging the Supreme Court to curtail Congress’ ability to establish uniform protections covering states in areas such as employment discrimination, environmental protections and other basic rights,” the AFL-CIO’s letter said.
Pryor was the only attorney general in two cases urging the Supreme Court to overturn federal laws on states’ rights. He sought to overturn a provision of the Violence Against Women Act even as 36 states jointly filed a brief supporting the law and again was the only state attorney general filing a brief against a key provision of the Clean Water Act.
Pryor offered an amicus brief on behalf of the state of Alabama that forcefully defended a Texas law allowing the government to invade the homes of U.S. citizens and arrest them for private and consensual acts of intimacy. The U.S. Supreme Court overturned that law June 26.
Pryor Joins Other Extremist Bush Court Nominees
Pryor joins a group of other extremist nominees, including Miguel Estrada, Priscilla Owen and Charles Pickering, who have faced stiff opposition by Senate Democrats.
Estrada, nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, refused to answer questions about his views on important civil and constitutional rights during hearings and the Bush administration has refused to turn over important documents from Estrada’s tenure at the U.S. Justice Department. Until more information on his views is provided, Senate Democratic leaders say they will continue their successful filibuster against his nomination.
Nominated to the 5th Circuit, Owen, a member of the Texas Supreme Court, consistently rules against workers’ and consumers’ interests, opponents say.
In 2002, the Senate Judiciary Committee rejected Pickering’s nomination to the 5th Circuit because of his views on the Voting Rights Act, his criticism of the “one-person, one-vote” principle and his role as a Mississippi judge in reducing the sentence of a convicted cross-burner. Bush renominated him this year.
Of all of Bush’s court nominees, Pryor “has one of the most troubling records on issues of critical concern to women,” including FMLA, reproductive freedom, the Equal Protection Clause [in the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution] that states women may not be barred from admission to public universities based on gender stereotypes and other issues, according to a report from the National Women’s Law Center.
Pryor’s record, says the AFL-CIO letter, “reveals him to be an ideologically driven activist with views outside the mainstream that are hostile to the interests of the working men and women we represent. He should not be rewarded with a lifetime appointment to the Eleventh Circuit.”
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