[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 14]
[Senate]
[Pages 19579-19580]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     NOMINATION OF WILLIAM H. PRYOR

  Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, I wish to bring my colleagues up to 
speed on the nomination of Attorney General Bill Pryor from the State 
of Alabama for U.S. District Court for the Eleventh Circuit Court of 
Appeals.
  Bill Pryor is an extraordinary nominee, one of the finest, most 
decent, most intelligent, and most ethical individuals I have ever had 
the pleasure of knowing. His reputation throughout the State of Alabama 
is extraordinary. His career as a lawyer is extraordinary. He would 
make a magnificent judge on the court of appeals.
  Bill grew up in Mobile, AL. He attended the Catholic school there, 
McGill-Toolen. His father was band director there. They were active in 
their church. They are the kind of family we ought to emulate and lift 
up and be proud of. I have heard it said that Mr. Pryor was a John 
Kennedy Democrat in the 1960s. After some of the problems we have had, 
he probably has changed some of his views about his politics in the 
last few days. But he is a remarkable man, and his mother and family 
are remarkable.
  Bill went to Tulane Law School, one of America's great law schools. 
He worked very hard. He finished at the top of his class. He was the 
editor in chief of the Tulane Law Review. The most prestigious position 
a graduating law senior can have is to be the editor of the law review 
for the law school. It is a quite an honor.
  He clerked after that for Judge John Minor Wisdom, one of the great 
justices on the old Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. Judge Wisdom has 
been known as a champion of civil rights in the South. He was one of 
those judges on the court of appeals during the time of the end of 
segregation and the movement toward integration. It was not easy. The 
court was constantly in the arena, whether they wanted to be there or 
not. Judge Wisdom has been recognized by all as being a champion in 
that area.
  Bill Pryor is a man of religious faith. He attends church regularly. 
His wife and children do so. He is a Catholic, and he believes in the 
doctrine of the church. It seems that some of those beliefs he shares 
with millions of Americans and millions of people throughout the world 
have caused some of the difficulties he has had.
  He helped me. When I was attorney general of Alabama, I put him in 
charge of appellate litigation and constitutional litigation. He wrote 
briefs to the court of appeals. He argued those cases personally. He 
had already been with two of Alabama's best law firms before he agreed 
to join me, giving up a very lucrative law career. The firms wanted him 
to stay. He was in a position to be partner and make a great deal of 
money. But he believed in public service. He and his wife talked about 
it. They agreed to come to work.
  After I was elected to the Senate 2 years later, Governor James, then 
Republican Governor of Alabama, appointed Bill to be my successor as 
attorney general. In that position, he has stood courageously for the 
values he believes in. He has done so with clarity and conviction, 
winning the confidence and respect of people throughout the State, even 
those who are of a different political party and race.
  For example, when he was sworn in, he said in his inaugural address: 
``The constitution and laws of this State should have not one thing in 
them that would discriminate against a person because of their race.'' 
We had in our Alabama Constitution an old amendment that said 
interracial marriages were banned. That had been declared 
unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, but Bill thought it ought not to 
be in there. He joined with State Representative Alvin Holmes who 
worked on the team of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., during those very 
tough days of civil rights. Together they led the battle, and the 
people of Alabama removed that amendment from the constitution.
  Alvin Holmes said: No other politician in Alabama, Republican or 
Democrat, White politician, supported me in that effort but Bill Pryor.
  He wrote one of the most powerful, moving letters anybody would ever 
want to see explaining the character of Bill Pryor and why he should be 
a Federal judge.
  Along that line, Mr. Joe Reed, Representative Joe Reed, Dr. Joe Reed, 
who is the vice chairman of the Alabama teachers union, the AEA, a 
member of the Democratic National Committee, who has chaired for 30 
years the Alabama Democratic Conference, a powerful force in Alabama--
there is nobody who has run for the Democratic nomination for President 
in these United States who does not know Dr. Joe Reed. He is the first 
person they would want to talk to as they consider how to be involved 
in winning a primary in Alabama. Dr. Reed supports him strongly.
  Congressman Artur Davis, a Harvard Law graduate, former assistant 
U.S. attorney, African American, supports Bill Pryor.
  The former Democratic Governor of Alabama has spoken highly of him. 
He has that kind of reputation. His reputation is that Bill Pryor does 
what is right; he follows the law, whether it is popular or not.
  One of the issues that was important politically in the State--and 
each State has issues that arise given time--was separation of church 
and state. The issue became very contentious.

[[Page 19580]]

Our Republican Governor, Bob James, had a very strong view about it. He 
played football and he said he didn't see anything wrong with a coach 
leading the kids in prayer. Frankly, I don't either. But the Supreme 
Court has ruled to the contrary.
  Governor James had other very strong views. He had just appointed 
Bill Pryor to the attorney general office to be one of the youngest 
attorneys general in America. He had this idea about how these issues 
ought to be argued in court. But under the Alabama Constitution, the 
attorney general speaks for the State of Alabama in court. So they had 
a conversation or two, and Attorney General Pryor had to reluctantly 
tell the man who just appointed him, in a very hot political deal, that 
your position will not hold up according to the law; I cannot support 
that.
  The Governor took a very strong position on the right of school 
officials to speak on religious issues, and reluctantly the attorney 
general had to file a brief on the subject. The attorney general filed 
a brief and said flat out that the Governor's position did not state 
the legal position of the State of Alabama. He argued the case 
according to the precedent of the Supreme Court. He also, in that 
confused time, wrote a legal opinion, which he sent to every school 
official in the State, setting forth what children could do in the free 
exercise of their religious beliefs and what schools could and could 
not do. In fact, those rules that he sent out were adopted almost in 
toto by the Clinton Department of Education as their directives to 
policy concerning the separation of church and state in schools. He 
followed the law, even though it was very tough for him to do so.
  They have expressed real reservation about Mr. Pryor. They say he has 
strongly held views, that he is extreme in his pro-life views, that he 
is very passionate, and that he would not follow the law, basically.
  They have criticized him for his views on abortion. He didn't 
volunteer those views. But in the committee, one of the Senators looked 
right at him and asked him about that. He explained that he thought 
that taking an unborn life was immoral and that Roe v. Wade has led to 
the slaughter of millions of innocent unborn. You could have heard a 
pin drop. Nobody had really been asked that squarely. He answered it 
honestly. He said: But, Senator, I know the courts don't follow that 
view and it is not the law today, and I follow the law as it is 
written.
  In fact, he had proof of it because, previously, when he was attorney 
general, Alabama passed a law to ban partial abortions. That law was a 
broad law. Under the Supreme Court rulings and other rulings, portions 
of that statute were not constitutional. Attorney General Pryor, as 
attorney general of Alabama, had to send a directive to all the 
district attorneys in Alabama directing them not to enforce portions of 
that law that violate the Constitution of the United States. So even 
though he thought, no doubt, partial-birth abortion was wrong--because 
he believes abortion is wrong, so he would certainly believe that 
horrible procedure would be wrong--he was a lawyer and he spoke up and 
he directed, as attorney general, every district attorney in the State 
to enforce that law, consistent with the Constitution. I think that 
demonstrates clearly his ability to understand and follow the law even 
if he does not agree with it.
  The only other thing I know he has ever done with regard to abortion 
is to make clear that if there were a protest at an abortion clinic 
that violated the law and the right of people to attend that clinic, 
they would be prosecuted by him. He would enforce the constitutional 
right of people to go to clinics and have abortions under the laws of 
the United States.
  Another issue we dealt with in the State was reapportionment. Most 
Republicans believed strongly that reapportionment had been very 
adverse to their ability to have a representative in the State 
legislature. As a whole, the State is a majority Republican State, with 
both Senators, the Governor, and five of the seven Congressmen being 
Republicans. But the legislature is about two-thirds Democrats.
  A lawsuit was filed by the Republican groups to get the legislature 
reapportioned, hoping they would get a better shake in the numbers. It 
was a pretty legitimate suit. It had real merit to it. They wanted Bill 
Pryor to take the lead in it as attorney general. He was a Republican, 
after all. Some lawyers had known him for years and they had worked 
with him. Bill researched the law and said: You don't have standing, 
and this is not a legitimate lawsuit, and I cannot support it. They 
said: What do you mean? They called me saying I have to get Bill to 
change his idea and help them win. But I told them then that Bill 
follows the law. If you have the law, do it; if you don't, he will not 
help you. So he resisted their actions. He defended the Democratic 
position. He defended, particularly, the African-American position. He 
actually lost the case in the court of appeals and appealed it to the 
Supreme Court of the United States and won it. He was right all along.
  So I can give many examples of this brilliant lawyer who has stood 
firm for what he believes is right, who gives bipartisan, biracial 
support to the people in Alabama, a man who would flourish as a court 
of appeals judge, a man who loves America. He has sincere and great 
religious faith. He understands the rule of law and places all that in 
proper context. I am just proud of him. I am glad the committee has 
moved him forward. I hope we will see him confirmed as a Federal judge.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Mexico is recognized.

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