July 19, 2005
Laura's Justice?
Meet Edith Brown Clement
By JOSHUA FRANK
Washington is abuzz with speculation that Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Edith Brown Clement is to be President Bush's Supreme Court nominee, which the White House has announced this evening during a televised address at 9pm EST.
Pro-choice advocates will likely be relieved if Clement ends up being the nominee, as she has said on several occasions that she believes the Supreme Court has already spoken definitively in favor of abortion rights.
Judge Clement is supposed to be one of the few potential Supreme Court candidates on Bush's short-list that would have a speedy confirmation process. Many top Democrats, including Harry Reid, speak highly of her. She's had only a few controversial decisions to her name, but the few she has ruled on are quite telling about her penchant for justice.
Take a case last January in which Clement blocked a jury award for Rickey Brown who had been injured working on an offshore Texas oil-rig. Brown injured his back in the incident, and because he had not told his employer, Parker Drilling, prior to his being hired that he had previously been treated in an emergency room for a back injury (which had no relation to his injury incurred on the job), Clement felt that the company owed him nothing for injuries suffered while working for the drilling company.
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