The most openly homophobic judge nominated by the Bush administration was confirmed by the Senate on June 9 by a vote of 53 to 45. William H. Pryor Jr., 43, will serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, which sits in Atlanta.
While serving as deputy and then Attorney General of Alabama, Pryor filed two viciously antigay legal briefs before the U.S. Supreme Court when he had no legal obligation to do so. One of his briefs equated homosexuality with bestiality, necrophilia, and pedophilia.
The Court rejected Pryor's perspective in the landmark Romer v. Evans decision, which threw out Colorado's Amendment 2, and Lawrence v. Texas, which struck down all state sodomy laws. Those are two of the most important legal precedents for gay rights.
Pryor also initially supported Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore's controversial stand to display a 5,000-pound monument to the Ten Commandments within the state courthouse, which was found to be a violation of the separation of church and state.
He is an ardent foe of abortion rights, having called Roe v. Wade 'the worst abomination of constitutional law in our history.'
Pryor was given a 'recess appointment' by President Bush and has been serving on the 11th Circuit for the last 16 months. He would have been forced to step down at the end of the year if he had not been confirmed.
During confirmation hearings Judiciary Committee chairman Arlen Specter, R-Penn., said that Pryor's record during his tenure on the bench had shown 'maturity' and 'growth, which undercut many of the objections of his critics.'
The confirmation vote for Pryor largely was along party lines. Only Republicans Lincoln Chafee ( Rhode Island ) and Maine's Senators Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe voted against Pryor, while Democrats Ben Nelson ( Nebraska ) and Ken Salazar ( Colorado ) crossed the aisle in the other direction to support him.
'The confirmation of somebody like William H. Pryor, who has a record of blatant hostility to fairness for gay people, underscores what's at stakethe ability of all people, whether politically popular or not, to get a fair hearing in court,' said Kevin Cathcart, executive director of Lambda Legal.
The group strongly opposed Pryor's confirmation. Cathcart called the vote 'deeply disappointing,' but vowed to 'continue to fight for fair courts.'
'The American people deserve justice, not prejudice,' said Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign. 'Anyone who lets their own personal prejudices shape their decisions from the bench poses a threat to the rights of all Americans.'
Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, added, 'Pryor's extremist views may resonate with the outer fringes, but they have no place on the federal bench. This is an American travesty.'
The Senate unanimously confirmed two other judges on June 9. Richard A. Griffin and David W. McKeague will serve on to the 6th Circuit, which sits in Cincinnati and covers Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee.
Another controversial conservative judge, Janice Rogers Brown, who currently sits on the California Supreme Court, was confirmed to a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia June 8. That court is said to be second only to the U.S. Supreme Court in terms of its legal influence.
The silver lining to Brown's confirmation is that she will not be sitting on the bench in California when that court eventually resolves the question of whether prohibiting gays and lesbians from marrying violates that state's constitution. Her successor is likely to be more positively disposed to a pro-gay ruling.