Q-NOTES
Legal
Lambda Legal speaks out against William Pryor
Organization calls Pryor
'most demonstrably anti-gay judicial
nominee in recent memory'
by Lisa Hardaway
NEW YORK CITY, N.Y. — Lambda Legal
announced April 26 its opposition to the
nomination of William Pryor to the U.S.
Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. In
a summary of Pryor’s record, the organiza
tion points out he has repeatedly shown
clear hostility to the rights of LGBT people
Pryor has repeatedly shown clear hostility
to the rights of the LGBT community and
those with HIV.
and those with HIV — and also to women,
people of color, disabled people and others.
Pryor has been nominated to the
appeals court before but failed to win
Senate confirmation, largely because of his
extreme judicial views. After Pryor’s nomi
nation failed, President George W. Bush
temporarily placed Pryor on the court
while the ^nate was briefly in recess.
Earlier this year. President Bush again
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nominated Pryor to serve permanently on
the Eleventh Circuit of the federal appeals
court (whose judges hear a wide range of
cases appealed from trial-level federal
courts in Florida, Georgia and Alabama).
The Senate judiciary Committee has already
held hearings on his nomination and a vote
by the committee is expected soOn.
“William Pryor is the most demonstra
bly anti-gay judicial nominee in recent
memory,” said Kevin Cathcart, executive
director of Lambda Legal. “It’s clear from
his record that William Pryor does not
belong on the federal appeals court.”
In particular, Cathcart cited several
major cases where Pryor put animosity
toward LGBT people ahead of constitution
al and legal principles. For example, when
Pryor served as Alabama’s attorney gener
al he wrote a friend-of-the-court brief
defending Texas’s anti-gay sodomy law in
Lawrence v. Texas, Lambda Legal’s landmark
U.S. Supreme Court case.
In that brief, Pryor made comparisons
between the rights of gay people and
“prostitution, adultery, necrophilia, bestial
ity, possession of child pornography and
even incest and pedophilia.” Years earlier,
when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in
turner v. Evans that a state cannot broadly
prohibit local anti-discrimination ordi
nances barring anti-gay discrimination,
Pryor said the ruling shows “new rules for
political correctness.” The Atlanta Journal-
Constitution has described Pryor as a “right-
wing zealot [who] is unfit for confirmation.”
“We oppose William Pryor not just
because he disrespects the rights of LGBT
Americans, but b^use he disrespects the
legal system and our Constitution,” Cathcart
said. “Pryor’s approach to the law is driven by
his extremely conservative personal and polit
ical beliefs. Our nation’s judges should hear
each case before them with an open mind and
a fair application of the law, and William Pryor
has shown that he’s incapable of doing that.”
According to Lambda Legal, which
released a backgrounder on Pryor’s record
and his nomination’s potential impact on
LGBT people, Pryor has already done signif
icant harm to fairness and justice during his
temporary stint on the federal appeals
court. Last year, he cast the deciding vote to
deny a full appeals court hearing for a law
suit challenging Florida’s anti-gay adoption
law. The court was split evenly, 6-6, on
whether to review a three-judge panel’s rul
ing in the case. Had Pryor not been serving
temporarily on the court, the full court
would have heard the case. Instead, the ear
lier ruling that upheld the discriminatory
law remained in place, and the U.S.
Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal.
“Several judges on the . appeals court
wanted to hear the case and said the law
raised ‘serious and substantial questions,’
but William Pryor kept that from happen
ing. As a result, lesbians and gay men in
Florida cannot adopt children who need
permanent, loving homes,” Cathcart said.
In opposing Pryor’s nomination. Lambda
Legal is mobilizing its 25,CXX)-plus members
to voice their concerns to members of the
U.S. Senate. Lambda Legal is working with
People for the American Way, Alliance for
Justice, the Leadership Conference on Civil
Rights and dozens of other groups to defeat
Pryor’s nomination and make sure the
nation’s courts remain fair and independent.
The effort to defeat Pryor’s nomination is
the latest step in Lambda Legal’s wide-rang
ing new national campaign, “Courting
Justice: Stand Up for Fair Courts — Protect
Our Rights.” The campaign aims to mobilize
LGBT people, those with HIV and allies to
advocate for unbiased judicial nominees,
defend fair-minded judges from political
attacks and support the legitimate role of
courts in addressing civil rights claims. As
part of the campaign. Lambda Legal will be
releasing substantive material on a number
of issues and nominees, giving members and
the public avenues to get involved in fighting
for fair courts, reaching out to activate con
stituencies through advertising and other
vehicles and working closely with other
leading civil rights and judicial organizations.
In late March, Lambda Legal also opposed
the nomination of Terrence Boyle to the U.S.
Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, citing a
troubling record on disability law that jeopard
izes the rights of fjeople with HIV.
“Fighting for fair courts is one of our pri
orities in the months ahead — and its impact
will last a generation. We’re at a critical junc
ture where one federal nomination could
make a difference between f aimess and
injustice for all Americans,” Cathcart said.
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