Texas Ad Hoc Coalition on Judicial Nominations
May 7, 2002
Honorable George W. Bush
President of the United States
The White House
Washington, DC 20500
Dear President Bush:
We, the undersigned Texas organizations, are writing to express grave reservations about the nomination of Texas Supreme Court Justice Priscilla Owen for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
In seven years on the Texas Supreme Court, Justice Owen has proven herself to be an extremist whose opinions not only stray well beyond the American mainstream but even run far to the right of the conservative majority of her own court. After the all-Republican Texas Supreme Court moved closer to the ideological center in 1998 (following your appointment of relatively moderate judges), Justices Owen and Nathan Hecht became an isolated bloc of dissent. Since 1998, Justice Owen has authored or joined 66 dissents, a record surpassed only by Justice Hecht (86 dissents). Justice Owen’s dissents came nearly twice as often as the average of all the court’s remaining justices.
Justice Owen’s activism betrays a judicial philosophy at odds with your own stated goal of nominating judges who will interpret rather than write the law. The Texas Supreme Court’s majority often has felt compelled to criticize the activist dissents that Justice Owen has written or joined. Even White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales leveled such criticism when he served with Justice Owen on Texas’ High Court. Justice Owen’s extreme and activist rulings are all the more troubling given that they usually favor the special interests that financed her campaigns and do so at the expense of ordinary people. Justice Owen’s opinions reveal a troubling insensitivity to discrimination and employee rights, reproductive rights, public information rights, environmental protection and consumer and citizen rights.
Due to the importance of federal appeals courts, Justice Owen’s record deserves a thorough review by the Senate Judiciary Committee. We intend to provide you and members of the Judiciary Committee with additional information on Justice Owen’s extremely troubling judicial opinions as her confirmation hearing nears.
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We believe that there are many mainstream Texas judges who are well qualified to serve on the federal appellate courts. We encourage you to nominate judicial candidates who fall within the mainstream and who are less ideological and divisive than Justice Owen.
Sincerely,
National Council of Jewish Women-Texas
6102 Queensloch
Houston, TX 77096
Ph: 713-771-9945
Planned Parenthood of the Texas Capital Region
707 Rio Grande Street
Austin, Texas 78701
Ph: 512-275-0171
Texas Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League (TARAL)
905 W. Oltorf St.
Austin, TX 78704
Ph: 512-462-1661
Texas AFL-CIO
1106 Lavaca
Austin, TX 78701
Ph: 512-477-6195
Texas Civil Rights Project
2212 E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
Austin, TX 78702
Ph: 512-474-5073
Texans for Public Justice
609 W. 18th Street, Suite E
Austin, TX 78701
Ph: 512-472-9770
Texas Watch
1300 Guadalupe, Suite 108
Austin, TX 78701
Ph: 512-381-1111
Women's Health and Family Planning Association of Texas (WHFPT)
P.O. Box 3868
Austin, TX 78764
Ph: 512-448-4857
