[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 150 (Tuesday, November 19, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Page S11563]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    NOMINATION OF MICHAEL McCONNELL

  Mr. HARKIN. Mr. President, I wish to express my concerns regarding 
the confirmation of Michael W. McConnell to serve on the United States 
10th Circuit Court of Appeals.
  Of President George W. Bush's judicial nominees, Michael W. McConnell 
is the most hard-line, impassioned, and consistent public foe of a 
woman's right to choose yet to come before the Senate. His legal views 
and philosophy are far outside the American mainstream.
  This nomination passed out of the Judiciary Committee on November 14, 
and came before the full Senate on November 15. Given the lack of time 
to review Professor McConnell's record, an absence of recorded votes in 
opposition to this nominee should not be taken as a vote of confidence 
from all Senators.
  McConnell is a long-time anti-choice scholar and activist whose views 
on the constitutional right to privacy leave little doubt about how he 
would rule in cases involving the right to choose. He believes that Roe 
v. Wade was wrongly decided and that significant restrictions on 
abortion are appropriate, even while Roe stands. He has joined 
conservative political activists in calling for a constitutional 
amendment to ban all abortions, possibly even in cases of rape and 
incest.
  This issue of abortion is one in which thoughtful people of good 
conscience may disagree. However, it is my belief that Michael 
McConnell's core personal beliefs on the immorality of abortion and the 
moral status of the embryo, articulated repeatedly in numerous forums 
including law reviews, op-eds, and legal [or court] briefs, will make 
it difficult if not impossible for him to consider impartially the 
cases that would come before him as a judge.
  McConnell's view of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act 
also illustrates his inability to be impartial. Not only has he 
contended that the law is unconstitutional, but his view of the FACE 
Act is so colored by his opposition to the right to choose that he has 
expressed his admiration for a judge who blatantly ignored the law in 
acquitting defendants who broke the law.
  Anti-choice legislatures have demonstrated great creativity in 
creating innovative barriers to a woman's right to choose. The 
constitutionality of these new barriers is frequently determined by the 
circuit courts, and is rarely reviewed by the Supreme Court.
  It is my hope that the administration will begin to reach across the 
aisle to identify moderate, consensus nominees. The alternative will be 
an ongoing crisis in the judiciary. It is also my hope that Professor 
McConnell is not a harbinger of what is to come when Supreme Court 
vacancies occur.

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