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President Bush is engaged in a campaign to pack the lower federal courts with judges who will roll back basic constitutional freedoms, including a woman’s right to choose. None of Bush’s 72 nominees to the federal Courts of Appeals has publicly endorsed the legal foundation of Roe v. Wade, and at least 19 have clear anti-choice records.
Confirmed Anti-Choice United States Circuit Court Judges
Janice Rogers Brown
Confirmed June 8, 2005 to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
As a justice on the California Supreme Court, she demonstrated her opposition to a woman’s right to privacy when she wrote a caustic dissent to a decision that declared a California abortion restriction unconstitutional. In contrast to the majority of justices, Brown would have given a very narrow reading to the privacy provision of the California Constitution. Brown’s first nomination was filibustered.
Deborah Cook
Confirmed May 5, 2003 to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
Cook has been endorsed by Ohio Right to Life.
D. Michael Fisher
Confirmed December 9, 2003 to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
As a candidate for the Republican gubernatorial nomination in 2002, he told a Pittsburgh television station that he “would sign a bill to outlaw abortions.”
Jeffrey R. Howard
Confirmed April 23, 2002 to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.
Howard supports banning safe medically appropriate abortions performed as early as 12 weeks of pregnancy and requiring parental notification before young women can receive abortion services.
Michael McConnell
Confirmed November 15, 2002 to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.
Supports a constitutional amendment banning legal abortion and is opposed to the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE), a federal law that protects doctors and women from anti-choice violence, intimidation, and harassment.
Priscilla Owen
Confirmed May 25, 2005 to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
Owen repeatedly tried to rewrite Texas law from the bench in order to deny young women their right to choose. Owen’s first nomination was defeated in the Senate Judiciary Committee. Her second nomination was filibustered. Her third nomination was approved by the Senate.
William H. Pryor, Jr.
Confirmed June 9, 2005 to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.
Pryor reaffirmed his position that Roe v. Wade was "the worst abomination in the history of constitutional law." Pryor's first nomination was filibustered.
John Rogers
Confirmed November 14, 2002 to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
Working in the Reagan Department of Justice, he urged the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Lavenski Smith
Confirmed July 15, 2002 to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.
Smith represented the "Unborn Child Amendment Committee" in its lawsuit to ban abortion in almost all circumstances from being provided by University of Arkansas hospital staff or in hospital facilities.
Diane Sykes
Confirmed June 24, 2004 to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.
As a state trial court judge in Wisconsin, she praised the efforts of two criminal abortion-clinic protesters and gave them lenient sentences.
Timothy Tymkovich
Confirmed April 1, 2003 to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.
Tymkovich testified to the U.S. Senate that states should be allowed to refuse to provide Medicaid-funded abortion care for victims of rape and incest.
Confirmed Anti-Choice United States District Court Appointees
James Leon Holmes
Confirmed July 6, 2004 to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas.
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