Press

For Immediate Release
Wednesday May 25, 2005
Contact: Mike Russell at 703-683-5004 (eex. 109)

JCN Hails Owen Confirmation by Full Senate
"Extremist" Smears Are Ordinary -- not "Extraordinary"

Washington, D.C.- Judicial Confirmation Network counsel Wendy E. Long today made the following statement on the Senate’s confirmation, by a vote of 56 to 43, of Justice Priscilla Owen of Texas to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit:

"Justice Priscilla Owen is a perfect example of the kind of judge President Bush promised the American people he would nominate: impeccable legal credentials, great personal integrity, and a commitment to apply the Constitution and federal law faithfully, as written.

"Liberal pressure groups and Senate Democrats ranted for months and years that Justice Owen was an ‘extremist’ whose confirmation must be prevented at all costs. Well, now she’s been confirmed by a bipartisan majority, proving that all the Democrat bluster was a fraud.

"The Senate will now move on to the rest of President Bush’s judicial nominees, and one thing is clear: each and every nominee is entitled to an up-or-down vote, just as Majority Leader Frist and the Republicans have said all along. The confirmation of Justice Owen also confirms that her judicial philosophy, like that of the rest of the President’s nominees, does not constitute an ‘extraordinary circumstance’ under the terms of the compromise agreement entered Monday evening by 14 Senators.

"The Republicans who entered the compromise have made clear that any attempt to filibuster nominees like Justice Owen will breach the deal and result in their immediate support for Dr. Frist’s use of the constitutional option. Senators Mike DeWine, Lindsey Graham, and John Warner, among others, have made this unequivocally clear.

"As Senator Graham put it: ‘The fact that you’re conservative is no longer an extraordinary circumstance.’ And the fact that People for the American Way, Moveon.org, Chuck Schumer, Ted Kennedy, and Harry Reid assert someone is an ‘extremist’ is not an ‘extraordinary circumstance.’ Indeed, that’s clearly a very ordinary circumstance. Of course Democrats will smear future nominees this way, just as they did Justice Owen. But now, we know those labels cannot justify a filibuster."

The Judicial Confirmation Network is an organization of citizens joined to support the confirmation of highly qualified judges and justices. In addition, JCN works to ensure that the confirmation process for all judicial nominees is fair and that every nominee sent to the full Senate receives an up or down vote.

To schedule an interview with a representative from the Judicial Confirmation Network, please call Mike Russell 703-683-5004 (ex. 109)