WASHINGTON -- The battle between President Obama and Senate Republicans over the nation's federal judgeships moved from disputes over vacancies and filibusters Wednesday to more familiar topics: abortion, contraception, sex education and religious freedom.


Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee continued to accuse Obama of trying to "pack" the federal appeals court for the District of Columbia Circuit -- regarded as the nation's second most powerful court -- with liberals who would take his side in fights over executive powers.


But facing Nina Pillard, a Georgetown University law professor and a veteran of liberal causes including women's rights, the panel's conservatives also attacked her articles and speeches on some of the most controversial topics pending before the federal judiciary.


The hearing made clear that Pillard may have the toughest time reaching the bench among Obama's three nominees to the D.C. Circuit, an 11-seat court now operating with four judges nominated by presidents from each party and three vacancies.


Leading the way is Patricia Millett, a Supreme Court litigator who had an easier time before the panel earlier this month. Awaiting a hearing is federal district court judge Robert Wilkins.


Taken together, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said, the nominations are "an attempt by this administration to pack that court, because the D.C. Circuit has been one of the few restraints on government power exercised by the Obama administration."


Cruz and Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, the most conservative members of the panel, questioned Pillard's positions on abortion, contraception, sex education and religious freedom by citing her words and writings. She has raised questions about some tactics of abortion protesters, the constitutionality of abstinence-only curricula that includes sex stereotypes for boys and girls, and the right of churches to fire ministers.


"Your views may well be considerably out of the mainstream," Cruz said, leveling a charge Republicans have used to block other Obama nominees, including his first choice for the D.C. Circuit, New York's Caitlin Halligan.


Democrats argued back, noting Pillard's work as faculty co-director of Georgetown's Supreme Court Institute, which prepares lawyers of all stripes for high court arguments. They also cited her work on an American Bar Association committee that helped lead to then-Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito, a conservative, receiving the ABA's highest rating.


And asked for her role model among Supreme Court justices, she chose former associate justice Robert Jackson of New York, whose portrait Chief Justice John Roberts chose to hang in the court's conference room.


Pillard, 52, who has argued nine cases before the Supreme Court, is perhaps best known for writing the federal government's brief successfully challenging the men-only admissions policy at the Virginia Military Institute.


"Academics are paid to test boundaries," she said in response to the criticism from conservatives. But as a judge, she said, she would be bound by the Constitution and judicial precedent. "The role of a judge is to be a straight shooter," she said.


0 comments:

Post a Comment

 
Top