Liberal revolt over President Obama judges grows

MSNBC - A revolt against President Barack Obama’s nominees to the federal bench in Georgia has spread from the civil rights icons who paved the way for Obama’s presidency to the abortion rights movement...

Luther Vandross was outed as gay after his death.

A revolt against President Barack Obama’s nominees to the federal bench in Georgia has spread from the civil rights icons who paved the way for Obama’s presidency to the abortion rights movement.

The abortion rights group NARAL last week announced its opposition to nominee Michael Boggs, joining a coalition of Democratic members of Congress from Georgia and celebrated civil rights leaders like Georgia Democratic Rep. John Lewis, C.T. Vivian and Joseph Lowery. The group had already been calling for the president to withdraw Boggs, a former Democratic Georgia state representative, and Mark Cohen, an attorney who defended the state’s voter ID law.

Both judges were approved as part of a package deal between the White House and Georgia’s two conservative Republican Senators, Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson. The deal was put together before Democrats abolished the filibuster for most nominations, but Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy maintains a Senate tradition, called the blue-slip process, which allows Republican senators to quietly block Obama’s judicial picks without drawing public attention.

“We look to our judicial branch to protect and uphold our values and freedoms. Michael Boggs’ anti-choice record shows that he will push his personal agenda instead of listening to the cases in front of him without bias,” Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL pro-choice America, said in a statement. “We expect our leaders to nominate judges whom we are confident will be fair and unbiased. Michael Boggs does not pass that test.”

Boggs has drawn particular opposition because as a state representative he supported keeping a Confederate symbol on Georgia’s state flag,  supported a state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, and backed a law that would require parental notification for minors seeking an abortion without exceptions for rape and incest.

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