Senate Confirms Former RTL President as Federal Judge.(Right to Life)

WASHINGTON (July 10, 2004) - - Over the objections of pro-abortion advocacy groups, the U.S. Senate by a close vote confirmed J. Leon Holmes, a prominent Arkansas lawyer and former president of Arkansas Right to Life, to a federal judgeship.

President Bush last year nominated Holmes for a lifetime seat as a federal district judge for the Eastern District of Arkansas. Pro-abortion groups such as NARAL and Planned Parenthood mounted a campaign urging the Senate to reject his confirmation.

In a long-awaited roll call on July 6, the Senate confirmed Holmes' nomination on a 51-46 vote.

Holmes, now 53, served as president of Arkansas Right to Life for a time in the 1980s. Holmes later became one of the most prominent trial and appellate lawyers in Arkansas.

Holmes was originally recommended for a federal judgeship in 2002 by Senator Tim Hutchinson, a Republican. Hutchinson lost his re-election bid that year, but when President Bush nominated Holmes in early 2003, the nomination was supported by both newly elected Senator Mark Pryor and by the state's senior senator, Blanche Lambert Lincoln, both Democrats.

The American Bar Association rated Holmes "well qualified" for the job, its highest rating. However, the nomination was promptly attacked by various pro-abortion advocacy groups.

Republicans currently hold a 51-to-49 majority in the Senate. On the July 6 roll call on confirmation, five Republican senators voted against Holmes: Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine, Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, and John Warner of ...