The Repubs cranked up the "Anti-Catholic" rhetoric in the Judge fight today. The screaming by the Dems shows that it is hitting home.
Appeals Court Nominee Again Blocked
Senate Action Renews Angry Exchanges Over Charges of Anti-Catholic Bias
By Helen Dewar
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, August 1, 2003; Page A02
Senate Democrats yesterday blocked President Bush's nomination of Alabama Attorney General William H. Pryor Jr. to a federal appeals court amid angry recriminations over allegations of anti-Catholic bias against the nominee because of his strong opposition to abortion.
The exchange -- rare for lawmakers who normally try to avoid any discussion of a nominee's religion -- plunged the already bitterly divided Senate into new depths of rancor over Bush's drive to give the federal judiciary a more conservative cast and the Democrats' attempts to slow it down.
Pryor, nominated for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta, is the third Bush appeals court nominee to be stalled so far by a Democratic filibuster. The Senate voted 53 to 44 in favor of ending the filibuster against Pryor's nomination, seven short of the 60 needed to limit debate and force a final vote on confirmation. The vote effectively kills the nomination, at least for the time being.
In votes earlier this week, Republicans failed to derail Democratic filibusters against Miguel A. Estrada for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia and Priscilla R. Owen for the New Orleans-based 5th Circuit. Several other nominees could also be blocked by the Democrats, including California jurist Carolyn Kuhl, who faces a test vote when Congress returns in September. She was nominated to the Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in San Francisco.
Both sides also appear to be staking out positions for the far bigger struggle that is likely to occur when a vacancy occurs on the Supreme Court, with Democrats pushing for a centrist choice while Republicans make a case for deference to the president.
At the heart of the debate over Pryor was a charge, first aired last week by a conservative advocacy group and promptly denounced by Democrats, that Pryor was under attack because of his devout Catholicism. They cited Democrats' questions about Pryor's "deeply held" views and concluded these comments referred to his faith.
While stopping short of accusing their colleagues of personal bias, several Republicans suggested Democrats were trying to impose a litmus test that would bar staunchly anti-abortion Catholics from the federal judiciary unless they renounced their religious views on abortion.
"What we are seeing, de facto, from members of the other side is a religious test," Sen. Rick Santorum (Pa.), third-ranking member of the Senate GOP leadership, said at a news conference shortly after the vote.
"I don't think my colleagues are against the Catholic Church," said Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), "but it sure seems like they are against the traditional, pro-life conservative Catholic on a selective basis, of course, because they can't do this to everybody."
Hatch said he is "not happy" with the ads run by the Committee for Justice, a conservative group that was created to lobby for Bush's judicial nominees, but Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), spoke favorably of the ads' message. Sessions also denounced what he called a "radical secularization trend in America that's gone too far." Santorum said the issue was whether "anybody who believes in church and faith" will be disqualified from public life.
Democrats, including several who are Catholic, responded with barely contained fury, denying they were trying to impose a religious test for the judiciary and accusing their critics of "religious McCarthyism."
"It is shameful, it is disgusting, it is unacceptable," said Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.).
"Where are the fair-minded Republican senators?" asked Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (Vt.), ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee. "What has silenced them? Are they so afraid of the White House that they should allow this religious McCarthyism to take place?"
Democrats argued that Pryor is opposed not because of his religious views but because of what they described as a "right wing" and "extreme" record dominated by his personal views on issues including abortion, capital punishment, environmental regulation and individual rights.
"In a sense, he's the Frankenstein nominee -- a stitching together of the worse parts of the worst nominees the president has sent us," said Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.).
Democrats also complained that there are still unanswered questions about whether Pryor misled the Judiciary Committee about his fundraising for the Republican Attorneys General Association, which he helped form.
Republicans vigorously disputed the notion that Pryor injects his personal beliefs, religious or otherwise, into his legal work, saying he always puts the law first. As an example, Sessions cited criticism from antiabortion groups when Pryor directed local district attorneys to restrict prosecutions under Alabama's "partial birth" abortion law in line with a Supreme Court ruling.
Democrats complained they did not even know Pryor was a Catholic until Hatch asked his religious affiliation at a confirmation hearing earlier this summer. Hatch said he asked the question because Democrats had questioned Pryor's "deeply held" personal beliefs.
Seeking to take the offensive on the issue, Democrats yesterday sought unanimous consent for consideration of a rules change to ban questions about a nominee's religion during confirmation proceedings. Hatch objected.
Yesterday's vote on Pryor was largely along party lines, with no Republicans supporting the filibuster and only two Democrats -- Zell Miller (Ga.) and Ben Nelson (Neb.) -- opposing its continuation.
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