Nominated to the United States Court of Appeals, 10th Circuit, McConnell was confirmed on November 15, 2002.

• Represented the Boy Scouts of America before the Supreme Court, arguing that the Boy Scouts are a "private group" which has the right to discriminate against gays. "The notion that every private group must be open to every person without discrimination means that every group must be alike. That would be the death knell of genuine diversity."

• Member of the Federalist Society Board, the Christian Legal Society, and the Becket Fund, all right-wing extremist groups.

• Opposes Roe v. Wade, stating that the court can deny legal protection "to fetuses only if it presupposes they are not persons...One can make a pretty convincing argument however, that fetuses are persons. They are alive; their species is Homo Sapiens."

• Signed a 1996 "Statement of Pro-Life Principle and Concern" which called on the Supreme Court to overturn Roe and urged Congress to pass a constitutional amendment banning all abortions, including those involving rape and incest. The statement also claimed that "abortion kills 1.5 million innocent human beings in America each year" and that some fathers must "watch their children killed against their will" and "learn to their distress only much later that a child they would have raised is dead."

• Opposed the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE), arguing that FACE is unconstitutional. He testified in support of the "constitutional right to protest against abortion forcefully and face-to face."

• Called for a "radical departure" from decades of church-state separation rulings by the Supreme Court He insists that the Constitution allows broad public funding of religious institutions.