For the second time in five weeks, President Bush bypassed Congress to appoint a judicial nominee whose selection had been blocked in Congress. On Friday, Alabama Attorney General William Pryor was sworn in to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta.

Democrats had blocked the nomination because of Pryor’s criticism of the Roe v. Wade U.S. Supreme Court case that legalized abortion.

Pryor was immediately sworn in by another 11th Circuit judge in Alabama. His appointment was widely criticized. Over 200 organizations had opposed his nomination because of his views on abortion, homosexuality and the environment.

Pryor has called the Roe v. Wade decision, which legalized abortion as QUOTE “the worst abomination of constitutional law in our history.”

He also signed a brief filed with the Supreme Court in a Texas sodomy case saying that if a law forbidding sex between homosexuals were overturned, it could pave the way for “prostitution, adultery, necrophilia, bestiality, possession of child pornography and even incest or pedophilia.”

In announcing his decision, Bush said in an email that Pryor demonstrates an “impressive record demonstrates his devotion to the rule of law and to treating all people equally under the law.”