By Alabama Public Radio
Atlanta, GA – Former Alabama Attorney General Bill Pryor was sworn in Monday as a member of the Atlanta-based 11th U-S Circuit Court of Appeals. Pryor's Democratic opponents had cited his criticism of the Supreme Court's Roe versus Wade abortion decision and his opinion that a key provision of the federal Voting Rights Act had outlived its usefulness. Bush named the 43-year-old to the court in 2004 while the Senate was not in session. He was finally confirmed by the Senate after a compromise allowed his nomination to come to the floor for a 53-to-45 vote. Monday's ceremony officially ended more than two years of the political fighting about Pryor's appointment. He was one of three court nominees who were cleared for a U.S. Senate vote in May when 14 moderate Democrats and Republicans crafted that compromise to avoid a shutdown of the chamber.