24 Hours Left in Judicial Filibuster

Late Friday afternoon, Senator John Cornyn from Texas filed what is called a motion for cloture on Judge Priscilla Owen.  A motion for cloture means that each of the United States Senators will be asked to vote on Tuesday as to whether they will allow the nomination of Priscilla Owen to go to the floor of the United States Senate.  Under current Senate rules, 60 votes are needed for cloture.  The attempts at compromise seem to be over at this point, and it looks like a vote for cloture will take place Tuesday at 5:30 p.m.  If there are not sufficient votes for Judge Owen for cloture, Senator Frist will call for the filibuster rule to be eliminated for judicial appointments.  It will take 51 votes for the rule to be eliminated.  The President of the Senate, Vice-President Chaney, has already indicated that he will vote in favor of removing this roadblock to judicial confirmation.  Our Governmental Affairs team has been working on this situation aggressively over the last few days and continues to work with members of Senate leadership.  Check out our website at www.aclj.org for frequent updates as the situation warrants. 

We have also filed today with the Supreme Court of the United States our second brief in the case involving the application of RICO to pro-life demonstrations.  We actually won this case decisively in 2003 at the Supreme Court in an 8-1 decision.  However, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit has still kept in place an injunction that is very restrictive of the free speech rights of pro-life citizens.  Therefore, we have asked the Supreme Court to order the Seventh Circuit to comply with its previous decision.