Number 14 Priscilla Owen

Priscilla Owen, Texas Supreme Court Justice, Fifth Circuit nominee. Justice Owen has anchored the anti-choice and pro-business wing of the ultra-conservative Texas Supreme Court. In a series of cases dealing with Texas' statute requiring parental consent for a minor to obtain an abortion, she attempted to rewrite the law to make it more difficult for a minor to obtain a "judicial bypass" which would have allowed for an abortion without parental notification in cases of extreme circumstances. She even attempted to graft onto the law a requirement that minors know the religious arguments against abortion. Her opinion was so extreme that recently-confirmed Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, a colleague of hers on the Texas Supreme Court, called it "an unconscionable act of judicial activism."

Justice Owen has consistently ruled in favor of corporations in lawsuits between businesses and individuals. In an age discrimination case, she dissented from the court's decision striking down jury instructions that improperly raised the bar for workers trying to prove that their employers fired them because of their age. In another case, Justice Owen refused to join the rest of her colleagues in finding that egregious behavior by a supervisor toward his female employees constituted intentional infliction of emotional distress. Justice Owen also took campaign money from Enron and Halliburton for her Supreme Court race and then voted in their favor when cases involving them came before her.

From Save the Courts.org