Bill Pryor Clears Judiciary Committee

At 9:30 this morning, our Office of Governmental Affairs here in Washington, DC, was actively involved in the proceedings regarding the vote on Bill Pryor clearing the Judiciary Committee.  I am happy to report that Judge Pryor has cleared the Judiciary Committee, and he is now on the floor of the Senate for confirmation.  This is very significant because we wanted to make sure that Judge Pryor was on the floor of the Senate when the issue over the rule change takes place, which could come as early as next Wednesday.  Our office has been working very aggressively on this point, and Drew Ryun and Colby May did an outstanding job making sure that Bill Pryor cleared the Judiciary Committee.

On radio today, I had the opportunity to talk with Senator Rick Santorum from Pennsylvania, who has been very active in the judicial reform issue.  Sen. Santorum brought excellent insight to the broadcast and shared his views that next week is absolutely critical for the rule change on the filibuster.  If you have not yet contacted us to add your name to the petition to change the filibuster rule, we want to encourage you to do that by calling toll-free 1.877.989.2255. 

I also want to let you know that we are busy working on a case out of Virginia involving the Standards of Learning test that is very disparaging regarding students who attend church.  I want to give you an update on a call we received a few days ago on my radio broadcast.  A parent in Virginia brought to our attention a very disturbing question on the state's Standards of Learning test given to 8th grade students.  There was a multiple choice question in the test that asked the student to identify the one trait that would NOT reflect good citizenship.  The choices were responsibility, accountability, self reliance, and church membership.  The answer, according to the state of Virginia, is church membership.  To claim that "church membership" is a trait that does NOT reflect good citizenship is simply outrageous.  I have directed our legal team in Washington to send a letter to the Virginia Department of Education demanding that this test question be amended and corrected.  I will keep you posted on this development.