U.S. senator Sam
Brownback, who wants to champion socially conservative
causes in the presidential race, said Tuesday he wants a
Senate panel to requestion a judicial nominee who
attended a same-sex union ceremony. Brownback, a
Kansas Republican, said he wants Michigan state judge Janet
Neff to testify about her role in the 2002 Massachusetts
ceremony, her legal views on same-sex unions, and her
ability to be impartial if called on to rule on such
cases.
Neff's nomination
to federal district court is among a dozen or so now
stalled in the Senate, a logjam due in part to Brownback's
questions about Neff's attendance at the lesbian
commitment ceremony. The Senate Judiciary Committee
has already approved her nomination.
Neff was
traveling outside the country and could not immediately be
reached for comment, said Chris Bockheim, her judicial
assistant.
Earlier this
month, Brownback, a prominent opponent of same-sex marriage
who is exploring a presidential run in 2008, said he would
lift the hold he put on Neff's nomination if the judge
agreed to withdraw from ruling on any court case
involving the legality of same-sex unions.
In Iowa on
Tuesday to meet with GOP activists, Brownback said he only
wants a chance to question Neff about her role in the 2002
ceremony. Brownback also wants a recorded vote in the
Senate. ''I am not opposed to her getting a vote,''
Brownback said before a lunch with potential donors
and supporters in Davenport. ''I would like her to come back
through committee so she can testify what took place,
factually...her legal views on same-sex marriage and
her ability and willingness to be impartial.''
Neff has said she
attended the commitment ceremony as a friend of one of
the two women, a longtime neighbor. She insisted in an
October 12 letter to Brownback that the ceremony had
no legal effect and would not influence her ability to
act fairly as a federal judge.
Brownback has
also been criticized for his proposal that Neff be required
to recuse herself from same-sex marriage cases. Legal
scholars said such a deal would infringe on the
separation of the legislative and judicial branches of
government.
But Brownback
said it was simply a last resort to put her nomination
forward. ''If we don't testify on her views on same-sex
marriage legally, then the only way I can see fit to
do this is to have her recuse herself from a class of
cases,'' Brownback said. ''Then others stepped in and
said, 'You can't do that.' Well, that's the only option I
had at that late hour.'' (AP)
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