Obama Appoinments: Repairing the Judicial System

[Pryderi]

One of the most important duties President Obama will have will be to filling judicial appointments. Bush has stacked the federal court systems with over 300 pro-corporate, anti-civil rights judges over the last 8 years. Many of these appointments are for life...God help us.

http://www.alternet.org/rights/99053/w%27s_worst_judges/
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."