ConfirmThem

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Priscilla Owen is now a federal judge. "This has been a long road," Judge Owen said today after her swearing-in ceremony at the Texas Supreme Court chamber, where she has been a justice for more than 10 years.

Debate in the Senate on the Brown nomination will begin at 2 PM today (Monday). The cloture vote on Justice Brown will be at noon tomorrow (Tuesday).

For more info about the Brown nomination, How Appealing has a good set of links. Nearly all of the opposition to Justice Brown is based upon her extracurricular speeches. Clearly, she has passionate views about many subjects. However, one of her most recent speeches gets across the point that --- whatever her personal views may be --- her actual judicial opinions show great restraint. Read about some of Justice Brown's controversial but perfectly reasonable judicial opinions here (People v. Floyd; People v. McKay; Aguilar v. Avis; Hi-Voltage v. San Jose), and here (Stevenson v. Superior Court), and here (San Remo Hotel v. San Francisco).

Justice Brown was elected to California's highest court with 76 percent of the vote. In 2002, she wrote more majority opinions than anyone else on that court. The American Bar Association has deemed her "qualified" to be a U.S. Court of Appeals judge.