Pryor Nomination Opposed by Civil Rights Organizations
Feature Story by civilrights.org staff - 6/24/2003
The civil rights community is strongly condemning the nomination of William H. Pryor to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, continuing an already contentious year for judicial confirmations.Wade Henderson, executive director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, insists Pryor's litigation, choice of amicus briefs, and public speech "make clear that the ideological positions he has taken in these cases are his own."
As Alabama's Attorney General, Pryor pioneered the "states' rights" movement, often at odds with federal protections of civil rights and civil liberties.
Civil rights advocates fear Pryor's record is evidence that ideology will drive judicial opinions if he is appointed to the federal bench. His June 11 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing provided a forum to explore Pryor's legal record.
Opponents point to cases such as United States v. Morrison, where Pryor represented the lone state to challenge the federal remedy for victims of sexual violence in the Violence Against Women Act. In the same case, 36 other states filed briefs strongly supporting the provision.
In Hope v. Pelzer, Pryor defended the practice of handcuffing Alabama prison inmates to outdoor posts in the hot sun without access to water if they were disruptive while on chain gangs. The U.S. Supreme Court dismissed his argument, calling the practice "antithetical to human dignity" and chastising the act as "both degrading and dangerous."
Pryor also submitted an amicus brief in support of the Texas anti-sodomy law at issue in Lawrence v. Texas. In the brief, he maintains that any right to choose one's sexual partner must also "extend to activities like prostitution, adultery, necrophilia, bestiality, possession of child pornography, and even incest and pedophilia."
Ralph G. Neas, president of People For the American Way, called Pryor "one of the most dangerous judicial nominees of this administration that we've seen yet."
