Obama Under Fire From Liberals for Nominating Social Conservative Judge
President Barack Obama is under fire from some of his liberal friends after nominating Georgia state Judge Michael Boggs, who has a pro-life and pro-traditional marriage voting record as a state representative, for a federal court judgeship.
"President Obama has asked the Senate to confirm a judicial nominee who tried to channel funds to anti-choice crisis pregnancy centers and make a parental consent law even more extreme," NARAL Pro-Choice America said in a message to supporters.
NARAL will launch a campaign to oppose the nomination, the message said. The group is asking supporters to contact their senators to pressure them to oppose the nomination.
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"We're disappointed that pro-choice President Obama nominated someone who doesn't share our pro-choice values. We agree with the president on a lot of things, but not this pick," NARAL added.
Boggs also voted in favor of keeping the definition of marriage as the union of one man and one woman.
Human Rights Campaign, a pro-gay marriage advocacy group, told Buzzfeed it has not decided whether or not to oppose the nomination, but added: "We are concerned about his nomination. We are looking into an awful lot of the issues associated with his record. Obviously, his position on marriage equality 10 years ago is not helpful to our consideration of his candidacy, but we are continuing to look into it."
Boggs is also one of two judicial nominees that the Congressional Black Caucus objected to in a meeting with the White House earlier this month. The CBC opposes Boggs' nomination, at least in part, because he supported keeping the Confederate flag as part of the Georgia state flag.
In that meeting, according to The Hill, CBC leaders asked Valerie Jarrett, the closest adviser to the president, to replace Boggs with a different nominee and were met with "a terse, 'no.'"
Conservative nominees like Boggs need to be opposed, Rep. John Lewis (D-S.C.), a CBC member, told The Huffington Post, in order to increase the diversity of the federal bench.
The Boggs nomination is apparently part of a deal with Republicans to get other judicial nominees through the U.S. Senate, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Under Senate custom, judicial nominees need the support of the senators representing the states where they will serve. Georgia is represented by two Republicans in the Senate – Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson.
