Filibuster Leaves Pryor in Legislative Limbo

It's official: The filibuster against the nomination of Alabama Attorney General William H. Pryor Jr. to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has begun.

The U.S. Senate on Thursday fell seven votes shy of the 60 votes required to put the nomination to an up-or-down vote. All 51 Republicans, plus Democrats Zell Miller of Georgia and Ben Nelson of Nebraska, voted to end debate on Pryor.

But the Democrats collected 44 votes against ending debate, sending Pryor into legislative limbo. He joins two of President Bush's other appeals court nominees, Miguel A. Estrada for the D.C. Circuit and Priscilla R. Owen for the 5th Circuit, who have been filibuster targets for months.

Republicans have decried the Democrats' use of the filibuster, which allows the minority party in the Senate to put a stop to legislative business it does not like. Democrats have defended the tactic as a rare step in a small number of highly controversial nominations, noting that 140 of Bush's circuit and district court nominees have been approved.

Pryor's conservative views -- against abortion, broad powers of the federal government with regard to civil rights laws and legalizing homosexual sodomy, among other things -- have drawn fierce opposition from liberal groups.
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