ConfirmThem

By Feddie Comments () / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

Jonathan Ringel has an excellent and balanced summary of Judge Bill Pryor's tenure on the bench thus far--entitled "One Year Later: Pryor's Record on the 11th Circuit"--in today's edition of the Fulton County Daily Report. Here are some of the more interesting excerpts from the article (which is currently only available to subscribers):

A Daily Report analysis of Pryor’s 48 published decisions on the court suggest he fits comfortably within the broad majority of the 11th Circuit, considered one of the country’s most conservative courts. In no case has he been on the dissenting side, and all of his three-judge panels have resulted in unanimous decisions.

. . . .

In several cases, Pryor has taken positions seemingly at odds with Republican stances and his record as Alabama AG, proving that he’s a judge who "seeks to do that which is right in the law," said Sen. Jeff Sessions, the Republican from Alabama who was the chief sponsor for Pryor’s nomination.

Sessions, for whom Pryor worked when the senator was Alabama attorney general, cited Pryor’s ruling, as part of a three-judge panel, in favor of an illegal alien who challenged his deportation. The plaintiff, a Mexican, had come to the United States illegally, been deported and returned illegally a month later. He married a U.S. citizen and became a permanent U.S. resident, after which Congress passed a law declaring aliens who had been deported ineligible for resident status until they had spent five years away.

. . . .

Another case fitting that description is Brown v. Johnson, 387 F.3d 1344, in which Pryor wrote for Judges Gerald B. Tjoflat and Joel F. Dubina in favor of an HIV-positive inmate who claimed prison officials stopped giving him his medication . . . . [T]he inmate, John Ruddin Brown, was a convicted robber who already had filed three suits against prison officials that had been deemed meritless. A lower court judge had dismissed Brown’s latest case because the federal Prison Litigation Reform Act bars prisoners who have filed three meritless suits from bringing new cases unless they are in "imminent danger of serious physical injury."

But last October, Pryor wrote for the panel that Georgia officials "wisely do not deny that Brown has serious medical needs." He declared that the prison’s alleged withholding of Brown’s HIV treatment was sufficient to trigger the exception.

. . . .

Accounts from four 11th Circuit judges contacted for this story say that Pryor is settling in well—each saying Pryor is hard-working and smart.

Pryor, 42, apparently is serving his time in legislative limbo in stride.

"He’s loving the job," said a lawyer friend in Birmingham, where Pryor moved with his wife and two daughters from Montgomery, Alabama’s capital.

Tjoflat, who has served with Pryor on 14 published cases, said Pryor does not appear to be bothered by his unique status—as the only federal appeals judge in America without life tenure.

"I think his attitude is just do it one day at a time and let nature take its course," said Tjoflat, whose 1975 confirmation took just 17 days.

Birch, whose 1990 confirmation took 50 days, said he has joked with Pryor that losing the confirmation fight could be the best thing that ever happened to him. With experience as a state attorney general and a federal judge, Pryor "could write [his] own ticket," Birch told his new colleague.

. . . .
Challengers from the Sierra Club, in another case, claimed Pryor’s temporary appointment—and pending consideration from the Senate—subjected him to political concerns and therefore threatened his impartiality.

As a result, Nan Aron of Alliance for Justice, another critic, suggested Pryor "may have pulled his punches."

Tjoflat calls that claim "just baloney."

Noting his outspoken nature as AG, Tjoflat said nothing in Pryor’s background suggests he would do such a thing.

On a scale of one to 10—with one being "a saint" and 10 being "a judge who votes strictly to advance a political agenda," Tjoflat said he’d rate Pryor at a two.

My hope is that law.com will make the entire article available to the general public in the near future.

(Cross-posted at Southern Appeal)