Bush Says Happy Valentine's Day with a Dozen Dreadful Judicial Re-Nominees

By Linda Berg, Political Director

February 15, 2005

Instead of a dozen roses for Valentine's Day, George W. Bush sent a handful of weeds to the Senate by re-nominating a dozen judges who had already withered on the vine during the last two congresses. In this "love letter" to women, people of color, people with disabilities, people who care about the environment and those who concern themselves with good government, Bush resubmitted the following suitors for Senate approval:

1. Terrence Boyle (re-nominated to the Fourth Circuit): This former aide to Jesse Helms, who holds an honorary degree from radical right Bob Jones University, was one of the first to rule that the Americans with Disabilities Act did not apply to the states. He was twice reversed by the U.S. Supreme Court after siding with white plaintiff voters in redistricting cases. Boyle also has declared that states are not obligated to adhere to equal opportunity laws in hiring when the state's "culture" does not approve of women working in certain fields.
2. Janice Rogers Brown (D.C. Circuit): This California justice has suggested that the First Amendment protects racially discriminatory speech in the workplace. She claims that the Social Security system is unconstitutional and accused senior citizens of "blithely cannibalizing their grandchildren." Brown is infamous for her 2000 decision upholding California Prop.209, which bans affirmative action for women and minorities in public contracts, hiring and college admissions. In her one opinion involving abortion, Brown ruled that a lower court's determination that a parental consent law was unconstitutional, allowed courts to "topple every cultural icon, to dismiss all societal values, and to become the final arbiters of traditional morality."
3. Richard A. Griffin (Sixth circuit): Griffin has argued that federal and state disability law does not apply to prisoners. His decision holding that striking workers are not entitled to unemployment compensation was reversed on appeal. Griffin was also reversed when he misconstrued the federal Pregnancy Discrimination Act and dismissed a sex-discrimination case filed by a pregnant employee who had been suspended from her job.
4. Thomas B. Griffith (D.C. Circuit): This general counsel to Brigham Young University practiced law without a license for three years. As a member of the Commission on Opportunity in Athletics, he proposed a series of changes to Title IX, the law guaranteeing equal educational opportunities to women and girls, which if implemented would have had devastating effects on equality for women in school sports. Griffith compares his political philosophy to that of ultra-conservative Senator Rick Santorum.
5. William J. Haynes II (Fourth Circuit): As the Department of Defense counsel, Haynes was central to the development of the Administration's policies regarding treatment of prisoners in Guantanamo Bay and the redefining of torture so narrowly that only the infliction of pain equal to that of organ failure or death would qualify.
6. Brett M. Kavanaugh (D.C. Circuit): Kavanaugh worked for Kenneth Starr in the Office of the Independent Counsel. During his time there, Kavanaugh investigated Vince Foster's suicide and drafted many sections of the Starr Report. Kavanaugh submitted an amicus brief to the Supreme Court which argued that a public school's policy of allowing a student representative to deliver a prayer over the loudspeaker before football games did not violate the Establishment Clause.
7. David W. McKeague (Sixth Circuit): This Federalist Society member dismissed a Justice Department request to investigate claims that female prisoners in Michigan were being abused and raped by male guards. He was reversed by the court of appeals in his decision to approve a Forest Service project entitled "Rolling Thunder" which would have allowed significant logging and clear-cutting in Michigan's Upper Peninsula forests.
8. William Gerry Myers III (Ninth Circuit): Myers has criticized the Supreme Court concerning both Roe v. Wade and Griswold v. Connecticut, stating that those decisions were made on the "personal moral values of the justices," and he has praised the decision in Bowers v. Hardwick upholding a ban on sodomy. Myers has compared federal laws protecting the environment to the "tyranny" of King George. Formerly an attorney for grazing and mining corporations, as the Interior Department's top lawyer Myers issued decisions that would devastate sacred tribal lands and his nomination has engendered unprecedented opposition from Native American Indian tribes.
9. Susan Bieke Neilson (Sixth Circuit): This Federalist Society attorney represented insurance companies, large corporations and hospitals in negligence, medical malpractice, products liability and corporate malfeasance cases. As a judge, many of her opinions siding with corporate interests and against consumers or people with disabilities were reversed.
10. Priscilla Owen (Fifth Circuit): Currently a member of the Texas Supreme Court, Owen has supported the elimination and narrowing of buffer zones around reproductive health care clinics, voted against judicial bypass in every related case that came before the Texas Supreme Court last year, and supports "stricter interpretation" of laws that require girls younger than 18 to inform their parents before obtaining an abortion. This Federalist Society member accepted money from Enron for her successful Supreme Court bid and then ruled in Enron's favor in five out of six cases that appeared before her.
11. William H. Pryor (11th Circuit): Currently Attorney General for Alabama and a member of the Federalist Society, Pryor has said that the Supreme Court's decision in Roe v. Wade was "the worst abomination in the history of constitutional law." He argued to uphold sodomy laws in an amicus brief in Lawrence v. Texas, arguing that if the constitution protects the "choice of one's partner…(then it) must logically extend to activities like prostitution, adultery, necrophilia, bestiality, possession of child pornography, and even incest and pedophilia." He has also argued against the Voting Rights Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act, the Violence Against Women Act, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act and the Clean Water Act.
12. Henry W. Saad (Sixth Circuit): This Federalist Society member and a current Michigan Court of Appeals judge has a long record of denying rights to injured workers and consumers. He has repeatedly shown hostility to plaintiffs who claim sexual harassment.

The National Organization for Women's members and supporters will not sit silently while the Bush administration continues to pack the U.S. courts -- the only branch of government not already in the hands of right-wing extremists. Senators should expect to hear an earful from NOW members in every state -- activists who take their rights very seriously. Hell hath no fury like women rights advocates scorned on Valentine's Day!