Senate Judiciary Committee 
Approves Pro-Life Judicial Nominees

November 15, 2002—Washington, DC: Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday did what they refused to do before on several occasions by sending two of President Bush's pro-life judicial nominations on for Senate confirmation votes despite strong opposition from pro-abortion groups.

The committee, on voice votes, sent the appeals court nominations of U.S. District Court Judge Dennis Shedd and University of Utah professor Michael McConnell to the full Senate after having delayed the two men before the midterm elections.

Shedd has been nominated for a seat on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., and McConnell is up for the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver. Approval of both is likely during the Senate's last-minute rush to clear pending nominations.

Kate Michelman, president of the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL), admits her group's opposition is based solely on McConnell's so-called "extremist" view that unborn children deserve legal protection.

"This nominee stands alone in having devoted much of his prolific and distinguished career to eradicating a woman's right to choose [abortion]," she said. "Indeed, he has gone so far as to suggest that the courts should declare embryos persons under the Fourteenth Amendment."

In 1996, McConnell signed the "Statement of Pro-Life Principle and Concern," which said, "We seek an America in which every unborn child is protected in life and welcomed in law." Other co-signers include Dr. James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, and fellow academics Hadley Arkes of Amherst College and John DiIulio, Jr., of Princeton University.

In a nod to the Republicans, who won control of the Senate and the committee next year, outgoing pro-abortion Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) did not call for a roll call vote on either of the nominations in the committee, which has 10 Democrats and nine Republicans. It was the first time he had not called for a roll call vote on an appeals court nominee since Democrats took over the Senate in June 2001.

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), the incoming Senate Judiciary chairman, called Shedd a "decent, honorable, fair-minded person'' and urged his confirmation as a nod to pro-life Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-SC). The 99-year-old Thurmond had asked for Shedd's confirmation before his January retirement after a 48-year career. Shedd is a former aide to the senator.

Pro-abortion groups have denounced McConnell, who is pro-life, saying his lifetime of work for pro-life causes makes him too biased to be a judge. "I trust that Professor McConnell will not seek to undermine women's reproductive rights,'' Leahy said.

Hatch said McConnell would make a fine judge on the regional courts that are one step below the Supreme Court.

"This is long overdue,'' said John Nowacki, director of legal policy at the Free Congress Foundation. "After 18 months, Senator Leahy has run out of excuses to keep stalling. Shedd and McConnell deserve an up-or-down vote in the Senate, but it's a shame that it took last week's election losses to prod the committee into action.''

In a 1994 Michigan Law Review article, McConnell wrote, "...Abortion is an evil, all too frequently and casually employed for the destruction of life..."

The GOP gains power in the Senate when the 108th Congress begins in January, and plans to bring back appeals court nominees that the committee voted down this year.

Pro-life Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS), the incoming Senate majority leader, said earlier that another Bush nominee, pro-life U.S. District Court Judge Charles Pickering, would be renominated next year.

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, the new Senate Republican Conference vice chairman, said Thursday that Texas Supreme Court Justice Priscilla Owen would be renominated by the White House as well. Owen drew praise from pro-life groups for upholding Texas' parental notification law by refusing to allow teen girls to have abortions without parental knowledge or involvement.