Twenty-five human and civil rights groups are asking the Senate Judiciary Committee to reject the nomination of Michael Boggs to be a federal judge in Atlanta.
Boggs, now a Georgia Court of Appeals judge, has emerged as one of President Barack Obama's most controversial judicial nominees. At issue are his votes as a state legislator against same-sex marriage, abortion rights and taking the Confederate battle emblem off the state flag. Boggs is nominated to sit on the U.S. District Court bench in Atlanta.
Among the groups opposing Boggs are: the NAACP, the AFL-CIO, Lambda Legal, NARAL Pro-Choice America, the National Organization for Women, People For the American Way, the National Education Association and The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.
Boggs’ legislative record makes him “a serious threat to the future of our domestic civil rights,” the groups said in a Wednesday letter to committee members. “(B)ased on his previous statements, we conclude that Boggs is likely to rule in ways that would attempt to turn back the clock on American civil rights and equality.”
Boggs is one of six Obama nominees to fill Georgia vacancies on the U.S. District Court and the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. When they appeared before the Judiciary Committee May 13, senators directed the vast majority of their questions to Boggs. The committee has yet to schedule a vote on the nominees.
One of Boggs’ most controversial votes as a lawmaker was his support for an unsuccessful amendment that would have required abortion doctors to post their names and the number of abortions they performed on the Internet. Boggs mystified some senators when he testified he did not consider the safety implications for doctors and was unaware at the time that the measure could endanger them.
Since that hearing, Boggs submitted written answers to follow-up questions from committee members. In one, Boggs acknowledged that recent press reports have disclosed that the issue of violence against abortion doctors was debated before the vote, but said he does not recall that debate.
Boggs also said he did not intend to convey categorically that he was unaware of violence against doctors who performed abortions.
“I would have been aware of some of the cases of violence at that time, although I do not recall specifically hearing any of these concerns raised relative to this amendment,” he wrote. “I should have considered this at the time the amendment was presented and regret my vote. … The amendment was ill-conceived and dangerous, and I should not have supported it.”
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