# What judges are the democrats threatening to fillibuster and why **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 27, 2005, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-judges-are-the-democrats-threatening-to-fillibuster-and-why/301426 "2005-04-27T19:56:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-judges-are-the-democrats-threatening-to-fillibuster-and-why/301426/1 "2005-04-27T19:56:59Z")
It is my understanding that there are about 200 judges and the dems are only fillibustering about 10 of them. Who are these judges and what is the reason for the fillibuster? ---
**Author:** ![SkipMagic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skipmagic/32/20706_2.png) [@SkipMagic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkipMagic)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-judges-are-the-democrats-threatening-to-fillibuster-and-why/301426/2 "2005-04-27T21:14:16Z")
It’s a toss-up between **GQ** or **GD** (because the “why” in the OP normally leads down a **GD** path), but I’ll send this thread over to **GQ** with which to start off. ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-judges-are-the-democrats-threatening-to-fillibuster-and-why/301426/3 "2005-04-27T21:37:45Z")
☹ James Leon Holmes Nominated to be a U.S. District Court judge for the Eastern District of Arkansas. On July 6, 2004, the Senate confirmed Holmes’ nomination with a 51-46 vote. Served as president of Arkansas Right to Life (1986-1987) and advocated for a constitutional amendment to the Arkansas constitution that would have prohibited abortion completely. In a letter to the editor Holmes stated, “The abortion issue is the simplest issue this country has faced since slavery was made unconstitutional and it deserves the same response.”\* Holmes equated Americans who support abortion rights with Nazis. What they advocate, he wrote in 1982, is “abandoning what little morality our society still recognizes. This was attempted by one highly sophisticated, historically Christian nation in our century—Nazi Germany.”\* Holmes dismissed the impact of a total abortion ban on impregnated rape victims as a trifle: “concern for rape victims is a red herring because conceptions from rape occur with the same frequency as snowfall in Miami.”\* Note: Every year over 32,000 women become pregnant as a result of rape in the U.S. and about 50% of these pregnancies end in abortion.\* Holmes wrote that the proper role of women in marriage should be a biblical one, in which a “wife is to subordinate herself to her husband” and “place herself under the authority of the man.”\* In 1997, he lamented that the feminist movement “brought with it artificial contraception and abortion on demand, with recognition of homosexual liaisons soon to follow.”\*\* In a 1990 article, Mr. Holmes dismissed concerns about racial disparities in the imposition of the death penalty, by suggesting that “a disproportionate number of death row inmates are poor and minorities, but so are the victims”. He also stated that “it seems unfair” for convicted murderers to do such things as writing their families from behind bars even though their victims cannot. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Reloy3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c68b51/32.png) [@Reloy3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reloy3)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-judges-are-the-democrats-threatening-to-fillibuster-and-why/301426/4 "2005-04-27T22:08:21Z")
> [@ouryL](#): > > ☹ James Leon Holmes > > Nominated to be a U.S. District Court judge for the Eastern District of Arkansas. On July 6, 2004, the Senate confirmed Holmes’ nomination with a 51-46 vote. > > Served as president of Arkansas Right to Life (1986-1987) and advocated for a constitutional amendment to the Arkansas constitution that would have prohibited abortion completely. > > In a letter to the editor Holmes stated, “The abortion issue is the simplest issue this country has faced since slavery was made unconstitutional and it deserves the same response.”\* > > Holmes equated Americans who support abortion rights with Nazis. What they advocate, he wrote in 1982, is “abandoning what little morality our society still recognizes. This was attempted by one highly sophisticated, historically Christian nation in our century—Nazi Germany.”\* > > Holmes dismissed the impact of a total abortion ban on impregnated rape victims as a trifle: “concern for rape victims is a red herring because conceptions from rape occur with the same frequency as snowfall in Miami.”\* > Note: Every year over 32,000 women become pregnant as a result of rape in the U.S. and about 50% of these pregnancies end in abortion.\* > > Holmes wrote that the proper role of women in marriage should be a biblical one, in which a “wife is to subordinate herself to her husband” and “place herself under the authority of the man.”\* > > In 1997, he lamented that the feminist movement “brought with it artificial contraception and abortion on demand, with recognition of homosexual liaisons soon to follow.”\*\* > > In a 1990 article, Mr. Holmes dismissed concerns about racial disparities in the imposition of the death penalty, by suggesting that “a disproportionate number of death row inmates are poor and minorities, but so are the victims”. He also stated that “it seems unfair” for convicted murderers to do such things as writing their families from behind bars even though their victims cannot. > > ☹ I’m not trying to be flippant, but cite? It’s not that I don’t believe you, but the asterixs in your post make it seem like you were about to tell us where to find these statements, and I’m curious. It also seems like this is a cut & paste (no offense) from another source. If so, what is it? ---
**Author:** ![JohnM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/848f3c/32.png) [@JohnM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnM)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-judges-are-the-democrats-threatening-to-fillibuster-and-why/301426/5 "2005-04-27T22:15:34Z")
Here are three others, from [People for the American Way](http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid=18629)[ul] [li]Priscilla Owen[/li][li]Janice Rogers Brown[/li][li]William Myers[/li][/ul]