July 12, 2002

The Honorable Patrick Leahy
Chairman, Senate Judiciary Committee
224 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senator Leahy:

On behalf of the 90,000 members, supporters and volunteers of the National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW) nationwide, I am writing to express opposition to the confirmation of Justice Priscilla R. Owen to the US Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit.

For your information, NCJW is a volunteer organization, inspired by Jewish values, that works through a program of research, education, advocacy and community service to improve the quality of life for women, children and families and strives to ensure individual rights and freedoms for all.

Justice Owen has repeatedly shown a lack of commitment to protecting a woman's constitutional right to reproductive choice. Her decisions and opinions in several cases involving the implementation of Texas law on parental notification are particularly egregious. These cases have had dire ramifications for the most vulnerable of women - pregnant teenagers seeking to exercise their constitutional right to obtain a safe abortion in privacy. In all of these cases, Justice Owen made clear her hostility to the plaintiffs' cause.

For example, Justice Owen objected strenuously when the court expedited consideration of whether to grant a mature teenager the right to obtain an abortion without her parents' knowledge. The teenager, in her fifteenth week of pregnancy, had endured a month of legal wrangling and had written "PLEASE EXPEDITE" on her petition to the court. Justice Owen's opinion was labeled "an unconscionable act of judicial activism" by fellow Texas Supreme Court Justice, Alberto Gonzales, now White House Counsel to President Bush.

Justice Owen also wrote that the judicial bypass clause in the Texas parental notification law requires judges to decide not only whether a teenager is mature enough to make her own decision without notifying her parents, but whether an abortion is, on its merits, in the teenager's best interest. This turns the purpose of the law - to allow mature minors to make their own independent decisions - on its head.

Based on statements you have made at hearings on other nominations, we know you agree that judges nominated to the federal appellate courts should be considered and confirmed based on their integrity, judicial philosophy and temperament, and commitment to safeguarding constitutional and civil rights. Justice Owen's record on the bench calls into question her ability to meet these basic criteria. We urge you to vote against her nomination.

Sincerely,

Marsha Atkind National President

cc: Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee