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WASHINGTON, March 22, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The US Supreme Court declined to intervene in a case filed by Senate Democrats challenging US President George W. Bush’s recess appointment of William H. Pryor Jr. to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals – the same court that will decide whether to hear an appeal of the Terri Schiavo case, expected today.

Pryor, who served as the Attorney General of Alabama before his appointment to the bench, was recess-appointed by Bush last February, to circumvent a Senate filibuster blocking his nomination. Senate Democrats opposed Pryor’s nomination because of his deeply held pro-life values.

The White House described the actions of Democrat Senators last February: A “minority of Democratic Senators has been using unprecedented obstructionist tactics to prevent [Pryor] and other qualified nominees from receiving up-or-down votes. Their tactics are inconsistent with the Senate’s constitutional responsibility and are hurting our judicial system.”

In June 2003, Pryor, a Catholic, called the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision “the worst abomination of the history of constitutional law.” He also called the day the decision was handed down “the day seven members of our high court ripped the Constitution and ripped out the life of millions of unborn childr0en.”

Denver Archbishop Chaput, reacting to Democrat bias against Pryor at the time, commented that there is “a new kind of religious discrimination” on Capitol Hill, one that sees non-faithful Catholics like Senator Richard Durbin, who supports abortion, persecuting a judge like Pryor, a faithful Catholic who is against abortion. “The bias against ‘papism’ is alive and well in America,” said Chaput. “It just has a different address.”

Pryor’s appointment to the 11th circuit expires next January.

See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
  Pro-Abortion Senators Furious as Bush Re-Submits Rejected Pro-Life Judicial Nominations
  Bush Recess Appoints Pro-Life William H. Pryor Jr. to US Court of Appeals

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