Bush again installs a judge at recess

President Bush bypassed a Democratic filibuster yesterday by installing Alabama Attorney General William H. Pryor to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals — his second recess appointment in as many months.

Mr. Bush’s action will allow Mr. Pryor to sit on the appellate bench, without Senate approval, until next January when the term of the present congressional session expires.

“If Attorney General Pryor were given a vote on the floor of the Senate, he would be confirmed,” Mr. Bush said yesterday. “But a minority of Democratic senators has been using unprecedented obstructionist tactics to prevent him and other qualified nominees from receiving up-or-down votes.”

Outraged Democrats, who have cited Mr. Pryor’s opposition to abortion when blocking a full Senate vote on him, yesterday accused Mr. Bush of circumventing the judicial-nomination process.

“The president has divided the American people and the Senate with his controversial judicial nominees and none is more controversial than Mister Pryor,” said Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, Vermont Democrat and ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Mr. Pryor is among six Bush nominees who have been filibustered by an unwavering group of 45 Democrats. Mr. Bush last month used a recess appointment to seat Judge Charles W. Pickering of Mississippi on the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. They had depicted Judge Pickering as insensitive to civil rights.

Of Mr. Bush’s nominees blocked thus far, none has generated as much scorn and venom from Democrats as Mr. Pryor, who was nominated 10 months ago.

“Judicial activists like Mister Pryor are committed to an ideological agenda that puts corporate interests over the public’s interests and that would roll back the hard-won rights of consumer, minorities, women and Americans with disabilities,” Mr. Leahy said in a statement.

But it was Mr. Pryor’s opposition to abortion that drew the most intense criticism at a hearing last year when he was asked about the constitutionality of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court case legalizing abortion.

“Well, I believe that not only is the case unsupported by the text and structure of the Constitution, but it has led to a morally wrong result,” he told the Senate Judiciary Committee. “It has led to the slaughter of millions of innocent unborn children.”

Mr. Pryor also was accused of being insensitive to homosexuals because he rescheduled a family vacation to Disney World to avoid “Gay Day” at the theme park.

“In light of this record, can you understand why a gay plaintiff or defendant would feel uncomfortable coming before you as a judge?” asked Sen. Russell D. Feingold, Wisconsin Democrat.

Mr. Pryor responded: “My wife and I had two daughters who at the time of that vacation were 6 and 4. We made a value judgment and that was our personal decision.”

As evidence of Mr. Pryor’s adherence in the rule of law over personal beliefs, Republicans point to his role in the removal of the Ten Commandments monument from the Alabama state courthouse. Despite his strong beliefs that the monument should remain, Mr. Pryor fulfilled an order by the state Supreme Court to remove the stone tablets.

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