Priscilla Owen, 2005 News

Texas judge, was nominated to a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals in May, after a bitter four-year partisan battle. Her nomination followed a compromise reached by a group of 14 senators that ended Republicans' threat of passing the “nuclear option,” which would have banned the use of a filibuster of judicial nominees by the minority party in Congress. Democrats had opposed her conservative views and her pro-business decisions as a justice on the Texas Supreme Court. Republicans embraced her for those same reasons.