Owen Nomination Voted Down in Committee
Feature Story by Civilrights.org staff - 9/6/2002
The Senate Judiciary Committee has rejected a second Bush nominee for the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in a vote divided along party lines. The nomination of Priscilla Owen, a Texas Supreme Court Justice, had been strongly criticized by civil rights organizations and environmental and women's groups.Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR) Executive Director Wade Henderson cheered the Judiciary Committee's decision. "Justice Owen's views on many important civil rights, women's rights and labor issues are far outside the mainstream of judicial thought, and her nomination seriously called into question President Bush's commitment to appoint federal judges who will interpret the law rather than make it," he stated.
Henderson also stressed the need for a nominee who would act as a guardian of civil rights. "With Mississippi, Texas and Louisiana, the Fifth Circuit has the largest percentage of people of color of any Circuit Court in the country. Unquestionably, much is at stake when it comes to civil rights."
Owen's controversial nomination followed the Committee's rejection of Charles Pickering, who was also condemned for his record of indifference to civil rights, to the same post. However, Owen had critics not only from the outside, but even one within the Administration.
Before his appointment as White House Counsel, Alberto Gonzales sat on the Texas Supreme Court with Owen. In one of his opinions at the time, he called one of her dissents "an unconscionable act of judicial activism." In another case, Gonzales wrote that if Owen's opinion were adopted it would improperly require the court to "judicially amend the statute."
The New York Times editorialized against Owen's confirmation, writing that "she reflexively favors manufacturers over consumers, employers over workers and insurers over sick people" and "her willingness to ignore the text and intent of laws that stand in her way" should disqualify her from consideration.
Civil rights advocates had similar concerns, which they highlighted in a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee urging rejection of the nomination. The letter was signed by several national organizations, including LCCR, People for the American Way, the National Women's Law Center, Alliance for Justice, National Partnership for Women & Families and the NAACP.
