Priscilla R. Owen, nominated for the 5th Circuit Court

A strident opponent of reproductive rights, workers' rights, civil rights, consumers' rights and environmental protection.

Priscilla Owen hired Karl Rove to run her first campaign for the Texas Supreme Court, where she has served as a justice since 1995. Critics charge that her confirmation to the New Orleans-based 5th Circuit Court of Appeals will unduly favor the oil and gas industry she represented as a lawyer for the bulk of her legal career with Andrews & Kurth, for whom she worked from 1978 to 1994. Her opinions thus far on the Texas court suggest strident opposition to reproductive rights, workers' rights, civil rights, consumers' rights and environmental protection.

Of special note has been White House counsel Alberto Gonzales' criticism of Owen as trying to implement "an unconscionable act of judicial activism" when they served on the Texas Supreme Court together, for interpreting a parental-consent statute to please antiabortion interests. Owen has proposed a particular view that abortion law be interpreted with a "religious awareness" standard.

While working at Andrews & Kurth in Houston, Owens was involved repeatedly on behalf of oil, gas and other energy-industry clients -- who later became prime donors to her campaigns for the Texas Supreme Court. Texans for Public Justice, a legal watchdog group, reports that Owen favored donors to her judicial campaigns 85 percent of the time when they appeared before her in court.

Owens' hometown newspaper the Houston Chronicle has editorialized that Owen is "less interested in impartially interpreting the law than in pushing an agenda."

Richard Allen Griffin, nominated to the 6th Circuit Court

He advocated excluding prisoners from protections under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Critics cite Griffin's tendency toward restricting the legal rights and protections available to plaintiffs that have come before the Michigan state Supreme Court, where he has served since 1990. In a 1994 case, the court reversed a decision written by Griffin that rejected a claim by striking workers being replaced by permanent employees that they were entitled to unemployment benefits under state law. At times his opinions have suggested that, if not bound by precedent, Judge Griffin would be inclined to inject personal ideology into judgment.

In Doe vs. Michigan Department of Corrections, prisoners brought a class action against the Michigan Department of Corrections to obtain health benefits on the basis of their HIV-positive status. While the case was pending, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) did apply to prisons and prisoners. Griffin begrudgingly reversed a trial court decision against the prisoners. In his opinion, he stated that he found in favor of the prisoners "only because we are required to do so ... Were we allowed, we would ... affirm the holding of the trial court" that the prisoners' case should be dismissed. "We urge Congress," he continued, "to amend the ADA to exclude prisoners from the class of persons entitled to protection under the act."

David W. McKeague, nominated to the 6th Circuit Court

As a district court judge, he was reversed by the 6th Circuit in several cases for "abuse of discretion."

As a director of the Michigan law firm Foster, Swift, Collins & Smith, in Lansing, Mich., David McKeague specialized in representing banking, utility, oil and gas clients such as First of America Bank, Shell Oil Company, Grace Petroleum Corporation and the Michigan Oil and Gas Association. After becoming a director of the firm, he was elevated by President H.W. Bush to a seat on the U.S. District Court in Michigan in 1992.

A coalition of environmental organizations oppose McKeague on the grounds that his legacy of work with the energy industry may predispose him toward anti-environmental judgments. Critics of McKeague's judgment observe an eagerness to get rid of cases on summary judgment, citing an opinion that one of a district court judge's important responsibilities lies in "weeding out frivolous" cases. How one defines such cases is of concern to his critics: McKeague was reversed by the 6th Circuit in several cases for "abuse of discretion," as in Northwood Wilderness Recovery Inc. vs. U.S. Forest Service, when an appellate court reversed a McKeague ruling that permitted a logging and clear-cutting project by the Forest Service without environmental analysis. The appellate court made its unanimous decision and called McKeague's ruling "arbitrary and capricious."

Opponents to his nomination also point toward his bias on the bench against workers' rights, civil rights and prisoners. In 1994, he sided with Republican Gov. John Engler of Michigan in a high-profile case against the U.S. Justice Department, which sought an investigation into widespread reports of sexual abuse of women in state prisons.

McKeague worked as general counsel, and has been a member of, the State Central Committee of the Michigan Republican Party from 1985 until 1992; he served on numerous political committees, including the National Steering Committee for Lawyers for Bush.

Henry Saad, nominated to the 6th Circuit Court

He built his legal career on defending major corporations from sexual harassment and discrimination lawsuits.

As a labor and employment lawyer in Michigan working for the firm Dickinson Wright, Saad focused largely on defending corporations -- including Ford Motor Co., General Electric and Eli Lilly & Co. -- with a focus on averting sexual harassment and discrimination lawsuits. Critics have questioned whether his history representing major corporations has influenced his judicial track record on labor rights and personal injury on the Michigan State Court of Appeals, where Saad has sat since 1994. In a 1997 personal-injury case, Judge Saad dissented from the majority's ruling in favor of a plaintiff who had been severely injured in an automobile accident caused by the defendant's admitted negligent operation of her car. His colleagues in the majority criticized Saad's dissent as judicial activism, "reading language into the statutes that is not there and impermissibly steps into legislative territory." On the other hand, Saad authored two legal journal articles in the mid-1980s defending the rights of employees afflicted with AIDS to be free from discrimination in the workplace.

Democratic objections to Saad's nomination are more a matter of principle than an objection to his judicial record. Michigan's two senators, Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow, blocked his nomination in part because Republicans would not allow votes on two of President's Clinton's judicial nominees, and to protest President Bush's breaking with a tradition of consulting with home-state senators about nominees to their district courts. Saad has been active in Republican politics, as co-chair of Michigan Lawyers for Reagan-Bush 1984, Michigan Lawyers for Bush-Quayle 1988, and Michigan Lawyers for Engler for Governor in 1990. He contributed $2,000 to George W. Bush's 2004 reelection campaign.

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