Ashcroft Confirmed As Attorney General, Despite Radical Record.

Controversial attorney general nominee John D. Ashcroft won Senate confirmation Feb. 1 in a narrow vote that split largely along partisan lines.

Ashcroft, a former U.S. senator, came under fire from civil liberties organizations and their allies for his far-right views and poor record on church-state issues. As a senator, Ashcroft was the architect of "charitable choice," a concept that calls for giving churches tax money to provide social services. He has also been harshly critical of the Supreme Court's decisions upholding church-state separation.

Despite bitter controversy, Ashcroft was confirmed 58-42, with eight Senate Democrats joining all Republicans voting in his favor. (The dissenting Democrats were John Breaux [La.], Robert Byrd [W. Va.], Kent Conrad [N.D.], Byron Dorgan [N.D.], Zell Miller [Ga.], Chris Dodd [Conn.], Russ Feingold [Wisc.] and Ben Nelson [Neb.].)

Democratic leaders in the Senate were pleased by the vote, pointing out that it was two more than 40, the number needed to sustain a filibuster. They vowed to use filibusters to block future Bush appointees to the Supreme Court if they are too far outside the mainstream.

"We'll cooperate when they're from the center," said Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), the Senate minority leader. "But we're going to be very concerned when they're from the far right."

Americans United joined the effort to oppose Ashcroft's nomination. On Jan. 16 AU submitted testimony to the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, expressing

the organization's concerns about the nominee's record.

AU Executive Director Barry W. Lynn reminded the senators that Ashcroft once attacked the Supreme Court for its church-state rulings, calling the justices "a robed elite" that has turned the wall of separation between church and state into "a wall of oppression."

Stated Lynn, "Ashcroft's characterization of the Supreme Court as a `robed elite' shows a lack of respect unbefitting a candidate for Attorney General. It is a phrase more commonly associated with religious extremists and anti-government militias than our nation's chief law enforcer and protector of civil rights and liberties."

Elsewhere in the testimony Lynn asserted, "Sen. Ashcroft's disregard for our constitutional separation of church and state and his attacks on the Supreme Court raise serious questions about his fitness to hold the office of attorney general. In that office, he would be expected to uphold the religious neutrality of the public schools and protect the rights of religious minorities. Given his poor record and dismissive statements about the U.S. Supreme Court's religious liberty cases, it is extremely doubtful he could fairly enforce these standards as U.S. Attorney General."

James Dunn, a Baptist minister and former member of the Americans United Board of Trustees, also advised the committee to vote against Ashcroft. In testimony delivered before the committee Jan. 19, Dunn charged that Ashcroft's record demonstrates that he is "unqualified and unreliable." Ashcroft, Dunn said, has "amply demonstrated that he does not understand the first freedom."

Noted Dunn, "Either he has a blind spot, a lapse or he's one of those who would intentionally destroy the separation of church and state as we have known it in this country."

Dunn, formerly executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs in Washington, D.C., is currently serving as a visiting professor of Christianity and public policy at Wake Forest University Divinity School.