Tom Harkin: “I am here to speak again, as so many before me, on the nomination of William Pryor to the Eleventh Circuit Court of…”

“I am here to speak again, as so many before me, on the nomination of William Pryor to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Now, we have heard many concerns and complaints about Mr. Pryor. We have heard that Mr. Pryor cost his State millions of dollars when he refused to join litigation seeking to hold tobacco companies accountable for the cost of smoking because he believes that ``smokers, as a group, do not impose the cost of their habit on the government'' and, listen to this, that the premature deaths of smokers actually save the Government the cost of ``Social Security, pensions, and nursing home payments.'' We have heard about Mr. Pryor's vigorous defense of Alabama's use of the hitching post as a punishment, a practice the Supreme Court held to be cruel and unusual punishment. So there has been a lot of talk about different things about Mr. Pryor and what he has stood for, but I am here specifically to talk about Mr. Pryor's persistent, repeated efforts to eliminate the ability of people with disabilities to receive equal treatment in our society. I am here to talk about this nominee's hostility toward the Americans with Disabilities Act. Most of my colleagues know that I had a brother who was deaf. Through his eyes, my family and I saw firsthand what discrimination against persons with disabilities looks like. It was, and still is, very real.…”