ConfirmThem

By Irishlaw Posted in Circuit Courts — Comments () / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

Via The Corner, comments from Senator Leahy suggesting he's going to continue fighting against judges like Bill Pryor because, apparently, they wouldn't be independent. Or something:

Well, I felt that Priscilla Owen from Texas is so far out of the mainstream. Her opinions -- even the very conservative Texas Supreme Court has criticized her as being out of the mainstream . . . . Well, just it is almost a knee-jerk reaction, corporations can do no wrong.

If Leahy is obliquely referring here again to the concerns he raised three years ago about Enron, those questions have long since been answered by the White House and even by Democratic former Texas Supreme Court justices. If the "out of the mainstream" charge is a reference to her opinions in the Texas parental notification cases, that charge was also somewhat of a misrepresentation. In the cases at issue (a series of In re Jane Doe opinions), Justice Owen was construing a state notification statute, and while the opinions in the cases were split, her opinions were joined by other justices and related only to construction of the statute, not the constitutionality of abortion in general. Nothing in the opinions suggest she is so far "out of the mainstream" to be unfit for the federal bench, and her unanimous "well-qualified" rating from the ABA also goes to indicate that Leahy needs to stop complaining and give her a fair hearing.

(The senator also appears to be hoping to find cause -- as if he thought he needed it before -- to filibuster Judge Pryor in his opinions since he's been on the 11th Circuit. Good luck.)