W's Worst Judges

By Stephanie Mencimer, Mother Jones. Posted September 17, 2008.

Over the past eight years, Bush has installed 310 federal judges -- two of them to the highest court in the land -- whose influence will be felt for many years. Here are some to keep an eye on, along with their more notable rulings before and after elevation.

1. WILLIAM H. PRYOR JR., 11th Circuit
Precedent: As Alabama's attorney general, he defended the state's practice of handcuffing prison inmates to hitching posts.
Case closed: Voted to uphold an Anita Bryant-era Florida law prohibiting gays and lesbians from adopting children -- even when they've served as their foster parents.

2. PRISCILLA OWEN, 5th Circuit
Precedent: Considered so conservative that Alberto Gonzales, her onetime colleague on the Texas Supreme Court, called one of her dissents (in an abortion case) "an unconscionable act of judicial activism."
Case closed: Reversed a $3.5 million malpractice verdict, saying the plaintiff should have spoken up sooner about her congestive heart failure, which was caused by a drug she was given during pregnancy. In his dissent, Reagan appointee Patrick Higginbotham accused Owen of imposing "tort reform by decree, not ballot."

3. JAY BYBEE, 9th Circuit
Precedent: As a top lawyer in the Bush Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, he issued an infamous memo finding that interrogation techniques are torture only if they are "equivalent in intensity to the pain accompanying serious physical injury, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death."
Case closed: Voted to strike down a jury award for a San Diego police sergeant forced to quit after he was deployed to Iraq with the Navy Reserve.

4. JANICE ROGERS BROWN, D.C. Circuit
Precedent: Deemed "not qualified" to sit on California's Supreme Court by a state bar association panel. (She was appointed anyway.)
Case closed: Argued that a woman coerced into having sex with her boss was not a harassment victim unless she had been punished, demoted or fired as a result.

5. D. BROOKS SMITH, 3rd Circuit
Precedent: Promised the Senate in 1988, when he was appointed to a federal trial court, that he would resign from an exclusive, men-only hunting club.
Case closed: He did not resign -- until he learned there was a vacancy on the 3rd Circuit.

6. WILLIAM RILEY, 8th Circuit
Precedent: Appointed directly from private practice, where he largely handled insurance defense cases.
Case closed: Earned a rep as Wal-Mart's favorite judge, siding in favor of the company in three discrimination lawsuits. Wrote the majority opinion in a case ruling that the Americans with Disabilities Act did not apply to a diabetic pharmacist fired by Wal-Mart because he needed to take a regular uninterrupted lunch break in order to inject insulin and eat a special diet.

See more stories tagged with: supreme court, george w. bush, judicial system, jay bybee, federal courts, william h. pryor, priscilla owen, janice rogers brown, d. brooks smith, william riley

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