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| | Senate approves Holmes for judgeship
Wednesday, Jul 7, 2004 By Allecia Vermillion Stephens Washington Bureau WASHINGTON -- After more than a year of delay and more than six hours of heated debate on Tuesday, the Senate approved Little Rock attorney J. Leon Holmes to become a federal judge in Arkansas. Senators voted 51 to 46 to install Holmes in the Little Rock-based Eastern District of Arkansas. Many expected the vote to be close because of the controversy surrounding the nominee, whose writings on abortion and the role of women at times in the last 25 years attracted strong disfavor among liberal interest groups, Democratic senators and a few Republicans. Holmes was not available for comment, said his secretary at Quattlebaum Grooms Tull & Burrow PLLC. Arkansas senators Mark Pryor and Blanche Lincoln, both Democrats, strongly backed the conservative Bush nominee in long speeches during the day. "I have spoken to many, many Arkansas people who said he'd make a great judge," said Pryor, a former law partner of Holmes who vouched for his impartiality. Pryor spoke at length, brandishing a sheaf of letters of support from Arkansans and other influential members of the legal community, including pro-choice Democrats and women. But Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said Holmes was not fit to be a federal judge. "I hope he will open his eyes to reality," Leahy said. "What kind of a mindset would he bring to a federal bench? Why in heaven's name would the president nominate him?" Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, said she never before opposed a Bush judicial nominee. But, she said, Holmes "has no judicial record in which to place a vote of confidence." Holmes' nomination had sat for more than a year after the Senate Judiciary Committee declined to make a recommendation on his confirmation. The Senate brought him up for a vote as part of a larger deal with the White House to resolve an impasse over judicial nominees. Pryor and other supporters said Holmes was being persecuted merely for having strong religious beliefs. The Arkansan had been a leader of Arkansas Right to Life in 1986 and 1987. "Nominees should be judged on their temperament and their ability to impartially uphold the law," he said, adding he believed Holmes was suitable on both counts. Both supporters and opponents of Holmes revisited a controversial statement he made in a 1980 letter to the editor that "conceptions in rape occur with approximately the same frequency as snowfall in Miami." Holmes has since apologized for the remark and said his views have changed in the last 24 years. But a string of other comments on women and abortion raised concern with some senators. Another instance that stirred up controversy involved an article Holmes and his wife wrote more than 15 years ago for their Catholic church asserting that "the wife is to subordinate herself to the husband." "There is no doubt I have been troubled about some of the statements attributed to Mr. Holmes," Lincoln said. But, she said, "I fully respect the right of Mr. Holmes to practice and express his religious beliefs freely, even those with which I may not agree, just as I expect others to respect my right to do the same." -- 30 -- |
